Welcome To Westworld
by Ninja Master
Summary: The Scooby gang go on vacation to Westworld a western theme park with robots. A demon plans to use the robots to kill Buffy. Will she survive the vacation with killer robots?
1. Chapter 1

Westworld facility, 1997

The demon Jareth took care of the dead bodies of the DELOS workers and guests. Only one loose end remained to be taken of; the solo surviving guest, Peter Martin. He appeared out of nowhere in front of the human, before Jareth smiled evilly at Peter.

"What the hell are you?!" Peter demanded.

"I'm a demon. Now you will die. I can't have any loose ends, after all." He grabbed Peter by the neck, and the man burst into flames.

Jareth used his powers to wipe away the traces of what had happened; so that no one could find out about the robots going rogue, killing the guests do to a computer virus. Returning to the Hellmouth, he put some robot spies among the Scooby gang.

The robots replaced Willow and Oz. The real Willow and Oz were taken around the time Buffy came to Sunnydale...

Two years later after the covered-up incident at the amusement park, Jareth took over DELOS completely. To him, human minds were a lot easier to control than demon minds. He sat in his office, wearing a dark blue suit with a black tie. Ethan Rayne came in and sat across from him. Ethan was dressed in red sweatshirt and blue jeans.

"Status report," Jareth demanded.

"All is progressing according to plan. Has the Slayer figured out two of her friends aren't human yet?" Ethan asked with a grin.

"No. That idiot Slayer has no idea I've been spying on her for the last two years. I have both Willow Rosenberg and Daniel Osbourne here in a hidden room."

"Really, Jareth?"

"I'll show you, Ethan."

They got out of the leather chairs and headed towards a book case. Jareth removed a book off the shelf and the book case moved to the side, to reveal a metal sliding door. Next to the metal door was a hand scanner. The demon put his hand on the hand scanner, and the metal door then slid open. In the hidden room were two human size tanks. In the tanks were Willow and Oz, floating in suspended animation.

Ethan had a puzzled look on his face. "I still don't see why you don't just kill them."

"I need them alive to supply the robots their memories. So the robots act more human."

"Not a bad idea," Ethan said with an evil smile. "What about the Slayer's other friend, Xander Harris?"

"All is progressing according to plan with him as well. I did give you the Gunslinger costume to sell him that night," Jareth chuckled darkly.

Indeed, back on Halloween 1997, Xander, Willow and Buffy had been at Ethan's store looking for something good to wear; and Harris had become the Gunslinger that night...

The android's resulting kill count had almost been enough to send Harris into an asylum, afterwards!


	2. Chapter 2

Sunnydale, October 30th 1997

Buffy and Willow had gone looking for Halloween costumes while - curiously enough - Xander did the same, but on his own.

He looked around the store, Ethan's Costume Shop, aiming to find something cheap. He was thinking of going as a soldier, but the soldier costumes were either gone or too expensive for him for him to buy. { Thanks a lot for running my fatigues at home, drunken useless parents... }

Also, all the toy machine guns were sold out. { What the heck. Maybe I could go as a cowboy? } Xander thought to himself.

Frowning, Xander found a toy revolver in the cheap bin. Not far away, he also found a typical gunslinger outfit; a cowboy hat, shirt, pants and even boots. The entire cowboy costume was black. { Whatever, guess I found something to dress up as for Halloween this year. }

Ethan Rayne smiled evilly to himself. { Ah, good. The Slayer's friend has found the Gunslinger costume. } Ethan walked up to his latest customer and said, "How may I help you?"

"Uh, how much is the cowboy costume?" Xander indicated the black outfit.

Ethan smirked. "I'd say you're in luck, we're having a sale today. I'm willing to rent you the outfit for, say, ten dollars?"

Xander couldn't believe his luck. Still, by this point in his life, he knew better than just take such an offer at face value. "Not sure if I can afford that."

"If you buy the set with the boots, I'll let it go for twenty dollars. I'll even throw in a gun holster for free?" Ethan smiled smarmily.

"DEAL!"

Moments later, Xander left the Halloween costume store with his new purchase. He went home and hid it in his closet - hoping and praying his drunken excuses for parents didn't find the outfit before tomorrow. The following afternoon, Xander left his house and headed to Buffy's place to meet Willow and her there. He knocked at the door, and Mrs. Summers quickly opened up.

"Hello, Xander. Buffy and Willow should down any moment," Buffy's mom smiled at him.

"Thanks, Mrs. Summers." He made his way inside and waited a few moments, before Buffy came downstairs dressed in a 18th century dress. "Looking good, Buff."

"Thanks, Xander. Great cowboy costume," the love of his life grinned at him.

Xander did his best to repress the fact that Buffy didn't feel the same way about him that he did about her. "Is Willow done? You know how the troll will be if we're late..."

"Yeah, she should be down any second. And I gotta tell you..."

At that moment, Willow finally came down the stairs. Buffy sighed, seeing Willow with a white sheet over her head. "...she's right here."

"Going as Casper, Willow?" Xander joked. "Same as you've done the last six years, huh?"

That remark was enough for Buffy to put her foot down. "Willow, I spent ages trying to - oh, please, just take off that stupid chain rattler outfit!" the Slayer ordered with a frown on her face.

Willow rolled her eyes under the sheet. "Fine, sheesh..."

She took off the white sheet and put it on a nearby chair. Xander's eyes nearly bulged out as he saw Willow was dressed like a rock 'n roll groupie. { I never saw Willow wear something like that before. She looks... hot, } he thought to himself in amazement. { Don't say anything lame, dude. Heck, don't say anything at all. Odds are with uncomfortable as Will is looking, you'll just get her mad at you! }

Xander looked at his wrist before remembering he wasn't wearing a watch. "We should go, before the troll gives us detention during the weekend."

"I can give you kids a ride to school," Mrs. Summers offered politely.

Both Xander and Willow thanked Buffy's mom and they all got into the Summers jeep.

Elsewhere, the bad guy started chuckling to himself. { Everything is going as planned, } Jareth thought to himself.

Back in Sunnydale, Ethan had just started setting up the chaos spell, as Mrs. Summers dropped the three teens off at the school.

"I'll be working late at the gallery, Buffy. Don't be too late arriving home tonight, okay?" Joyce asked her daughter.

"No problem, mom."

Buffy, Willow and Xander wave goodbye as the Summers-mobile took off. A few minutes later, the teenage trio walked through the main hall of the school to pick up their kids and take them trick or treating.

But unfortunately, they ran into the troll himself along the way - Principal H. R. Snyder.

"You three made it on time. I was about to give out weekend detentions for showing up late. Now get going, and take the little brats trick or treating." With that said, the high school fuhrer left.

"What a dick," Xander snorted to himself.

"You can say that again." Buffy sighed, before the three friends split up.

Roughly ninety minutes or so later that night, Ethan cast the chaos spell on everyone wearing a cursed costume. "Showtime..."

Jareth watched the human residents of Sunnydale be attacked by people that had become their Halloween costumes. He noted with interest how Xander had become the robot Gunslinger from the Westworld theme park...

The black-clad android started firing his revolver at people both wearing costumes and not wearing costumes. It was enough to give the demon ideas...

"Xander!" Willow yelled, but the Gunslinger just opened fire at the ghost. "Wha - no! Stop shooting!"

"What are you?" the Gunslinger, pausing for a moment.

"I'm Willow, of course! You -" The Gunslinger abruptly stuck his arm through her non-corporeal body. "Hey! Cut that out, mister, it's not funny!"

"Typical saloon girl, even if you are dressed somewhat oddly. You are of no interest to me," the Gunslinger snorted, before walking away in search for new targets. Willow would have followed him, but then she realized...

"BUFFY!"

Later that night, the Gunslinger encountered Larry Blaisdell the pirate. He was about to attack Buffy, when the Gunslinger fired his revolver at the pirate's hand. The robot was unsure why his targeting systems didn't let him aim for the brain instead, but there was no time to contemplate that as the Gunslinger opened fire.

The sword dropped to the ground. Buffy pushed the surprised pirate away, and frantically tried to escape...


	3. Chapter 3

Sunnydale, October 31st 1997

The 1775 noblewoman who had been Buffy Summers earlier tonight ran from the alley. Well, you could hardly blame her, what with the way she'd been about to become the victim of an evil pirate's felony assault...

Pirate Larry yelled at the Gunslinger, "You'll pay for that, mate!" He was about to open fire with his flintlock, but the soulless vampire named Spike appeared in the alley at the front of his pack of minions, and grabbed Larry's neck.

"Well, what 'ave we here?" Spike snapped Pirate Larry's neck like a twig, before he casually tossed the body to the side of the alley. "Never mind, not interested. You seen the Slayer anywhere, mate?" Then Spike frowned, staring at the Gunslinger more carefully. "Oi, don't I know you-?"

Spike's gang of vampires and mini-demons started getting restless. William the Bloody gestured at them to be quiet, before he finally recognized Xander's features. "So the Slayer's little friend is playin' cowboy, is he?" Spike laughed. "How's that workin' out fer you, whelp?"

"Whelp? I think not. And do you really think you are a threat to me, Englishman?" the Gunslinger replied emotionlessly. Without warning, he opened fire with his revolver at the vampires and demons. In the space of a few moments, he had seriously wounded the vampires and killed some of the mini-demons -slash- possessed children.

Naturally, the vampires weren't too happy being shot at and decided to leave, seeking easier prey elsewhere. Despite William's loud cursing, they left Spike and the few remaining wounded demons behind. "Where do you lot think yer going?!" Spike ranted. "Bloody cowards, every single one of you-"

"Indeed. More importantly, though, they left you behind," the Gunslinger said with that cold, emotionless, robotic voice.

"So what? Useless gits, they were. And I don't need them to take you on, mate!" Spike replied, putting his cigarette out by tossing it to the ground and grinding it underneath his boot. "C'mon, then, entertain us-"

The Gunslinger opened fire on Spike! The British vampire got hit with a lot of bullets which tore through his clothes, but didn't kill him because, hello? Evil undead here.

"That bloody hurt, you wanker! That's it, you're dead!" Spike knocked the revolver out of his hand, and then punched the Gunslinger in the face. "OW! Bugger, bugger, bugger!" Spike cursed, feeling like every bone in his right hand was broken. "What the bloody-"

The Gunslinger just grinned at Spike, before he punched the vampire as hard as he could, knocking him off his feet. "Now, bullets don't work. So, what should I do with you?" the android demanded, running scenarios through his electronic brain. He noticed the vampire jump to his feet, before saying, "Well, very few things can survive decapitation, now that I think about it..."

Elsewhere, Buffy ran into Willow.

"Buffy, you're alright!" the Willow ghost cried out, embracing her; or at least trying to.

"What, what manner of sorcery is this? You, you're the ghost of a, a harlot?" the 18th century noblewoman said in her soft, accented voice, looking terrified.

"I'm your friend, Buffy, it's me - Willow!" the red-haired ghost explained. Off of Lady Buffy's scared and non-comprehending look, Willow gave up and said, "Come on, follow me - we gotta get you to safety!"

Moments later, they arrived safely at Buffy's house (since it was the closest). "That was close," Willow said in pure relief. They were almost attacked by some monsters on the way here, after all. Then she looked worried. "Okay, how do we get you inside?"

Elsewhere, the Gunslinger attacked Spike, knocking him out cold but failing to rip his head off (yet). He stepped over the vamp before picking up his revolver and shooting at the few remaining wounded demons. He failed to kill any of them as they all managed to run off, and then the Gunslinger holstered his revolver before looking back at Spike. "This is annoying."

Not far away, Cordelia was dressed as a cat, kitty ears and black whiskers and all. But she hadn't actually turned into a feline, since she hadn't gotten her costume from Ethan's costume store. Panting wildly, she was running from her former date for the evening - Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy. "HELP!" she screamed wildly.

Much to her surprise, a cowboy all dressed in black opened fire at the hairy beast and killed it!

"Xander?!" Cordelia asked, with a puzzled look on her face. "Dweeb Boy, is that you?"

The Gunslinger turned around to stare at her with those blank, robot-like eyes. The look scared Cordy right to the depths of her soul.

"Ah, never mind, wrong person!" Immediately, Cordy made a run for it from the Gunslinger.

The android was going to shoot her, of course, but somehow - some way - Xander Harris managed to fight against the possession long enough to prevent the android from pulling the trigger. The Gunslinger frowned, not understanding the glitch - system error - that had prevented him from firing the revolver. He ran a quick diagnostic, but found nothing wrong with his programming. "Very strange..."

From his secure location, the monitoring Jareth smiled at the display of human weakness. "Very interesting," he said to himself.

Later that night, Cordelia made it to Buffy's house before Angel quickly let her enter the residence. "Thanks! It's a nightmare out there. Say, after it's all over - would you like to meet up with me for some coffee over at the Bronze?"

"Cordelia! Not now!" the Willow ghost scolded her.

"Oh, fine. By the way, I ran into Xander before I got here. He was dressed as a cowboy, and he was acting all... weird like," Cordelia frowned for a moment, wondering why that bothered her more than it should have.

Willow sighed at hearing this. "Okay. We should go find Giles, tell him what's going on," the ghost cogitated, wanting this nightmare to finally end.

All of a sudden, there was a crash from the kitchen. Everyone ran towards the room, and their eyes went wide before Angel started fighting the monster that had invaded the Summers home.

Lady Buffy screamed at the sight of it; the monster had two big eyes on its arms! It also had blue skin, yellow eyes and sharp claws.

{ Why isn't Buffy fighting that thing? } Cordy wondered to herself. Then she wanted to dope-slap herself. { Yeah, right, she doesn't know who she really is right now; duh! Get it together, girl! }

Angel slammed his fist into the monster's face, and it went flying across the kitchen table. "You three, get out of here!" the man said, before his face morphed into that of a demon. A vampire!

{ EWW! } Cordelia immediately thought in disgust. { I actually hit on a vampire? Ugh! Still, it's so unfair - no one that good-looking is allowed to be a monster! }

Grabbing Lady Buffy by the wrist and putting away such thoughts, Cordelia ran out of the house with the Willow ghost not far behind. "High school?" the high society princess demanded of the redhead, as they ran.

"I dunno - it's so far away. We probably oughta find somewhere a bit closer!" Willow replied, ignoring Lady Buffy's demands for Cordelia to release her at once.

All three girls had no idea that Jareth had turned a human into the monster that Angel was fighting, as part of his evil plan. They also had no idea that Jareth was watching Angel and the monster fight it out! The new owner of Westworld ruminated on the possibility of creating an Angel robot - he had already substituted robot doubles for Oz and Willow earlier this year, after all.

"Guess we'll see," the demon said to himself, before turning his attention back to the Gunslinger and briefly laughing in evil delight.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: The Gunslinger in this story is not the one from the Stephen King novels, it is from the classic 1973 movie "Westworld" starting Yul Brynner. This is a BTVS/Westworld crossover fanfic, but ff. net has no entry for that movie, so I've listed it as simply a BTVS fic

1630 Revello Drive Sunnydale, October 31st 1997

Moving inhumanly fast, Angel kicked the monster's eye on its arm. It roared and its claws slashed at him. He dodged the claws and then punched the monster in the face, sending it flying out the back door of the kitchen and into the backyard. Angel hurried outside, grabbed a nearby rake and impaled the monster in the chest with the wooden end. The monster instantly burst into flames, before it turned into a dead human.

"What the hell?!" Angel exclaimed to himself, before the human corpse collapsed into dust. "Now I've seen everything..."

Elsewhere, Willow, Cordy and Buffy arrived at the school library. "Giles, we got big trouble in little Sunnydale!" Cordy called out, after they slammed through the double doors.

Willow just rolled her eyes, as she let go of her best friend. Unnoticed, Buffy walked to a table and picked up a book. { My, what tiny and yet neat handwriting... }

Giles burst out of his office, looking concerned. "Trouble? What kind of trouble?!"

Speaking quickly, Willow and Cordy told him what was going on around town. Namely, how some of the townspeople had become their Halloween costumes. "It's totally freaky, Librarian Guy, what going on?" Cordelia demanded.

"Err, it sounds like... oh dear, c-chaos magic must be at work here," Giles sighed to himself.

"What is that, Giles?" asked Willow.

"Exactly what its name implies, Willow."

"Who could be behind this, Giles?" asked Cordy.

"I don't know. Yet," the Watcher said, before heading towards the shelves. "I...Buffy? What are you doing?"

Elsewhere, Spike finally got to his feet. His clothes were ruined from the Gunslinger's bullets, and his hand was still hurting like hell from where he'd punched the android. "That little wanker will pay for this!" he vowed. "Maybe not tonight, but soon. Oh, yeah, he'll pay alright!"

William the Bloody pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his bullet-ridden duster. Taking out a cigarette, he put it in his mouth and lit it. Spike then left the alley and headed home to Drusilla. "Hell with this..." he grumbled to himself, upset that he'd yet to get his hat trick of Slayer kills.

Back at the library, Giles had noticed Buffy had been acting strangely since Willow, Cordelia and she got here. "What's wrong with Buffy?" the Watcher asked, noticing the frightened look on his Slayer's face.

Cordelia shrugged, obviously not caring. But Willow said, "Buffy's possessed, Giles. She thinks she's a noblewoman from 1775!"

"I am most surely not possessed, for that is the Devil's work!" the noblewoman declared, in that annoyingly soft and British-accented voice.

Giles was startled to hear his Slayer speak that way. He then said to the redhead, "Willow, what-?"

"I don't know, Giles! All I know is Buffy got her costume at the same place Xander and I got ours, and now she's like - this!" the computer hacker grumbled.

"What, err, where did you get your costumes from?" Giles asked.

"The new place in town. Ethan's Costume Shop. Some creepy-looking guy named Ethan Rayne..." Willow started to say.

"Ethan Rayne?! He's the one behind this? I should have known. There's no time to waste, we must stop him!" Giles shouted with anger in his eyes, causing all three girls to recoil on instinct.

"C'mon, then, let's go. I want the madness to just end, already!" Cordelia declared. Grabbing the confused and hesitant noblewoman, the gang left the library heading to the Watcher's car in the parking lot.

"A demon! A demon!" the possessed Buffy screamed at the sight of vehicle, before she fainted.

"Oh, joy. Willow, you grab her feet, I'll grab her shoulders. Giles, open the damn rear door!" Cordelia demanded angrily.

They quickly managed to stow the unconscious Buffy into the back seat, and then drove off. On the way to Ethan's store. Willow asked Giles how he knew Ethan. The British man obviously didn't want to answer, but eventually replied, "Ethan and I knew each other a long time ago. We, err, we did a lot of things w-we shouldn't have done with magic, in our early twenties."

"Whatever. Look, what are we going to do about Xander?" Cordy asked with a heavy sigh.

"What? What's wrong with Xander?" Giles sent her a worried look, before returning his attention to the night time traffic.

"The Dorkhead was acting just like Buffy," Cordy replied. "He dressed up as a cowboy, y'know, a Gunslinger. And now, he really is a black hat!"

"Good Lord!" Giles exclaimed in shock. "We'll, um, we'll have to track him down, I-I-I suppose. But, but after we stop Ethan's nefarious scheme."

At Ethan's costume store, thanks to Jareth's manipulations - the Gunslinger smashed his way through in through the back and aimed his revolver at Ethan!

"Wait, don't shoot me!" Ethan cried out, flinging his arms up. { Bloody hell, THIS wasn't part of the plan! }

Angel, who had been following Xander after seeing him open fire on another cowboy and killing the man in cold blood, managed to stop the possessed teen from killing Ethan by tackling the Gunslinger to the floor. They hit the Janus statue along the way, causing it to shatter and end the spell! Ethan took advantage of this to run for it, of course, but Angel ignored that.

"Xander? You okay?" the ensouled vampire demanded, briefly distracted by the ozone-like smell of the strong magicks in the back room.

"What-?" the no-longer-possessed Xander started to splutter, before all the memories came back.

He remembered shooting and killing so MANY people... so naturally, Xander's sanity started to shred itself apart. "No, no, no..."

That was, however, when Jareth appeared, stopping time with just a thought.

"You will not go insane from the events of this night, Xander Harris. That does not feature as part of my plans, after all."

Thus, Jareth erased from Xander's mind the memory of everything that had happened for the past few hours. He even made Xander forget that he had ever been a robot. The demon then teleported Xander and Angel back to their homes, before unfreezing time and leaving the costume store.

Having heard the noise just before running out of the store, Ethan returned to the back room to see the broken Janus statue on the floor in little pieces. Nothing else, though - no Gunslinger, no black-clad vampire, nothing.

{ What the hell happened?! } Ethan wondered, before suffering an acute attack of no curiosity and swiftly departing his place of business.

A few minutes later Giles, Willow, Cordelia and a no-longer-possessed Buffy entered the shop - quickly making their way to the back of the store and stopping at the doorway, with questioning looks on their faces.

There was nothing to see, after all, but the broken bust of Janus in little pieces...


	5. Chapter 5

Jareth's office, Westworld facility, 1999

"All is progressing according to plan?" Ethan asked the demon sharply, because looking back on it - he *still* wasn't happy about almost being shot by the possessed Xander, even though all that had been nearly two years ago. "Was it part of the plan to have Harris kill me during that particular Samhain, then?"

"No it wasn't, Ethan. The Gunslinger went rogue, killing the guests in the Westworld theme park before the Slayer arrived in Sunnydale. A computer virus, you understand. Naturally, the android's programming was affected when your chaos magic summoned it into being."

"Naturally." Ethan sighed and rolled his eyes. "So, Ripper's protégé doesn't remember anything at all, Jareth? Even though it's been, what, eighteen months or so?"

"For the most part, yes. He has no conscious memory of killing all those humans and demons; I made sure of it." Jareth laughed in a darkly wicked way. "Plus, the Hellmouth contains distractions - like Harris's girlfriend, for example. Still, once the Slayer comes to Westworld, that's when I will send out the robot vampires!"

{ Robots mimicking the undead? Now I've heard everything! } "What about the *other* Slayer?" Ethan asked, with a worried look (almost).

Jareth shrugged, looking uninterested. "She will no doubt be killed by Spike and Drusilla at some point. Care to see my robot vampires, Ethan?"

"Yes, of course Jareth." Ethan knew there was no point in getting the demon angry by refusing, anyway.

They quickly entered the lab where the robot vampires were being built. Upon doing so, the chaos mage quickly spotted an Angel-lookalike machine laying on a table. "Why are you creating a robot version of *him*?" Ethan asked, with a questionable look on his face.

"To mess with the Slayer's head," Jareth grinned.

"Angel is still alive," Ethan said, with a very heavy sigh. He had quite the history with the ensouled vampire, after all. "Well, what passes for alive with the undead, anyway. And that Buffy girl will know that, won't she?"

"A seer once foretold Angel's death by the Slayer's hand. The Slayer will have a hard time slaying the robot version of him," Jareth laughed in a darkly evil way...

17619 White Oak Drive Sunnydale, November 1st 1997

Xander lay in bed, deep in thought. { Why can't I remember what happened last night? }

It was all a big blank, unfortunately. The Scooby Gang had eventually tracked him down at his parents' home and they had managed to get all the little kids back safely to their parents, but still, it was *odd* how he couldn't remember anything after going to school yesterday afternoon or the whole trick or treating thing during the early evening.

{ Still have no idea how I got home, either. }

The cowboy costume lay inside a box near the closet. He wondered why Buffy, Willow, Cordiela and Giles were hiding what had really happened on Halloween. Shrugging, Harris figured he probably he didn't want to know right now, so he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

Elsewhere, Spike was still infuriated at Xander (or rather the Gunslinger), since the android had destroyed his favorite duster and shot him full of bullet holes. Even for a vampire, it took a long time for such wounds to heal. Spike lit a cigarette with an angry look on his face before saying, "I'm going to rip that little wanker's throat out, see if I don't! Shoulda killed him during Parent-Teacher Night..."

Drusilla was dancing to music only she could hear. "Kitten has become a killer..." the female vamp commented in a shallow, dreamy voice.

Spike simply rolled his eyes. { Yeah, well, luv - that's bloody obvious from all the bullet holes, idnit? }

The next morning, Xander got up and spent a lazy Sunday goofing off around the house. He was somewhat surprised that Cordelia came around to visit briefly, but put that down to your normal Hellmouth weirdness and thereafter ignored it. But the next day it was Monday, so he got ready for school and headed out the door, eventually meeting up with Willow on campus.

{ Oh, I feel so bad not telling Xander what really happened on Halloween, } she thought to herself unhappily. It felt like a betrayal of Xander's friendship to conceal stuff that way, even though she knew that if she confessed the truth, he'd freak out completely. Luckily, the town paper had only briefly mentioned the Halloween nightmare over the weekend, and there was nothing in today's edition of how many people had been killed. { Only in Sunnydale! }

"Hey Willow," Xander said, dragging the redhead from her thoughts.

"Hi, Xander. Still can't remember what happened on Halloween?"

"Nope, nada. I don't even know how I got home," Xander sighed deeply.

"That is weird," Willow agreed with a puzzled look.

They finally arrived at the main school building, and found Cordelia and her flock gossiping near the lockers. Xander and Cordy shared a quick look, before the queen of mean visibly dismissed him and started talking to her minions. "All right, what's the what on who's dating who?"

Elsewhere, Buffy and Giles were going through some books at the library. The Slayer and her Watcher were looking for a way to help Xander get parts of his memory back (but not all of it, because hello, no one wanted him to end up in the local county MHMR). But so far, no luck.

Buffy closed her book with a sigh. "Giles, are you sure not telling Xander what happened on Halloween is a good idea?"

"If he were to find out that he killed people, Buffy...I shudder to think what could happen. Xander could even, err, snap."

"I know that, Giles. But since this is the Hellmouth, the odds are he'll find out some other way, and at the worst possible time! Seriously, how *did* Angel and Xander disappear from Ethan's store? Angel said one moment they were there, and the next they weren't? That's gotta be Hellmouth-related!"

"Hmmm." Giles was in deep thought. "I-I have no clue, Buffy. They, they weren't there at the back of the store when we arrived. The Janus statue was in pieces on the floor..." he sighed. "And with our luck you're probably right, a-about the timing aspect."

Meanwhile, Xander and Willow headed to class, with the guy wondering why Cordy suddenly seemed to notice he actually existed. They walked into homeroom and took their seats. Buffy entered the room just as the bell rang, and quickly took her seat as well.

Later, during the first class of the day, the teacher walked in and started writing on the white board. "Good morning, everyone. Take out your history books and turn to page 65." The whole class opened their books and more or less closed their minds, as the lesson got underway.

After class Willow, Buffy and Oz congregated together to talk (and it was still kinda weird how close Willow and that guy had gotten so close since last year, but since it had been made abundantly clear it was none of his business, he didn't pry). Shrugging, Xander talked with Cordelia in the hallway not far away.

"Still can't remember what happened on Halloween, doofus?" Queen C asked politely (for her).

"Nope, nothing at all." Xander looked at her suspiciously. { And what do you know that I don't, I wonder? }

Willow and Oz were talking about something, when Buffy got a call from her mom on her cell phone. "Hey mom, what's up?"

"Buffy, I'm sorry, but I'm going to be late coming home tonight," Joyce said apologetically.

"No biggie, I'll make some mac 'n cheese or something. See you later, mom, bye - love you!" Buffy hung up, kinda worried about why her mom would be late.

Elsewhere within one of the labs at DELOS, Jareth oversaw the Gunslinger being rebuilt by some of his minions.

One of them was the mind-controlled Warren Mears...


	6. Chapter 6

17619 White Oak Drive Sunnydale, November 4th 1997

Xander Harris was not a happy camper.

Over the past two days, his friends (and Cordelia) had been looking at him funny all the time. They denied it, of course, but since he was neither blind nor an idiot (despite Cordelia's opinion on the subject), Xander *knew* they'd been keeping an eye on him that way. It was as if they were worried he'd explode or something!

Well, okay, Cordelia was being her normal self and worry for him wasn't part of her job description, but still. How weird was it that he was currently feeling more comfortable around the Queen of Mean, than his bestest buds?

Something was wrong with this picture. It simply didn't compute.

Xander also wasn't too happy that he had to do a book report for English class. The teacher had assigned them to read Stephen King's IT, and he hated clowns! He didn't want to read about a normal one, let alone a demon variety that ate kids!

Sighing, Xander went to the nearby video store to rent the movie so he didn't have to read the whole book. Sure, his grade might suffer, but it was better to fast forward through the movie rather than skip book chapters!

The worst part was that he'd planned on seeing IT with Buffy and Willow, but they were too busy doing something else. What, exactly, he didn't know. Which was painful, but not entirely unexpected. And there was no way he would ever willingly spend time with Cordelia doing something like this, so Xander went home alone to watch the movie in his bedroom.

His parents weren't home for some reason, which he could care less about anyway. Xander went upstairs to his room before he closed the door and locked it with the deadbolt he'd installed himself. Turning on the TV and then the VCR, he put in the movie videotape and pushed Play.

As the credits began, Xander tried to psych himself up and pay attention in order to write his book report - but he already knew this whole thing was a lost cause. He really hated clowns and, after what had happened last year during the Day of the Living Nightmare, everyone who mattered knew he was scared of them too.

{ Come on, focus! } Xander wriggled around on the bed to get comfortable, and started to watch the movie.

A few minutes later, he was already bored - so far, no scary evil clown. Xander sighed to himself. { Maybe I was a bit too hasty in not inviting Cordy to watch the movie with me? Sure, I'd want to kill her within five minutes and then kill *myself* within ten, but any sort of company would be better than this! }

He watched the scene where Bill Denbrough made a paper boat for his younger brother, George. Afterwards, George went out into the pouring rain with his paper boat. The kid sailed the paper boat down the flooded street. And then, of course, the paper boat sailed down into a sewer drain.

"NO!" George Denbrough yelled out, causing Xander to wince and lower the volume of the TV. { Parents aren't home, I know, but still. }

Xander watched as George looked down the sewer drain for his boat. Then Pennywise the clown appeared from the darkness under the sewer drain. { Here it comes... }

"Hello Georgie, want a balloon?" Pennywise said, with a evil smile on his face.

{ I HATE CLOWNS! } Xander almost screamed when he got a closer look at the actor playing Pennywise. Something... there was something about the image on the videotape...

Something loud tapped at the window, which instantly made Xander jump out of bed. "What the frack?!"

Then he heard another tap. One which almost cracked the glass of the window. { Who the hell could be tapping on my second floor bedroom window, at this time of night? }

Harris went to the window and saw Angel nearby, the undead guy having climbed a tree. { What the heck is the friendly neighborhood vampire doing here?! }

Shrugging, he opened the window. "Angel? Dude, what are you doing here?"

"We need to talk. I'm assuming no one's told you what happened last week, during Halloween?"

Xander felt a cold shiver run down his spine. He definitely hadn't been expecting to hear this on a Tuesday night! "Uh, not sure what you mean. Unless - you know what it is everyone's been hiding from me?"

"Yeah." Angel paused. "I'm pretty sure your friends are just trying to protect you from the truth, Xander, but... the truth has a nasty habit of revealing itself at precisely the wrong time, what with the Hellmouth tainting everything around here at least to some extent. So. Do you want to know the truth?"

"I get the feeling that Jack Nicholson was absolutely right when he said, "You can't handle the truth!" in the movie, but what the hell - you've got a good point about the timing thing as well," Xander sighed. "Okay, lay it on me."

Angel never hesitated. "You were possessed by a killer robot, the same way Buffy was possessed by that noblewoman and Willow ended up a ghost. Apparently, you killed some demons and wounded some vampires. You also wounded and even killed some possessed people in costume. I personally saw you kill a guy dressed as a cowboy in a shootout on the street."

Xander felt like he was just punched into orbit by Superman. "What? Excuse me, I meant, WHAT THE HELL?"

"Yeah, well. Now you know why Buffy and the others thought it'd be better for you not to know," Angel shrugged, almost losing his balance in the nearby tree before he steadied himself.

"I - yeah. But, but I can't remember... I mean, I believe ya, it totally explains why everyone's been tiptoeing on eggshells around me lately, but still..." Xander trailed off, feeling totally freaked.

There was a short period of silence, as Xander tried to pull himself together. Eventually he succeeded, and then he asked his undead acquaintance, "So, why'd you 'fess up? I mean, why not convince someone else to do it? We're not exactly best buds or anything."

"I know, but - well, I guess it's because if you need to talk someone who can understand what it's like to take a human life, I alone qualify. I did more than my fair share of killing and hurting people after I was turned, as I'm sure you know."

"Yeah. Yeah, that I do. I just wish -"

"What?"

"I wish the others had told me, I wish - well...I wish they had the same faith in me that *you* do. And isn't that something I never thought I'd hear myself say?" He sighed sadly. "Any idea who this cowboy robot was?" He subsequently asked Angel, wanting to know more.

"No. Although there have been rumors since last year..." Angel trailed off. "They're just that, though, rumors."

Xander shrugged. "What the hell, tell me anyway."

"According to the demon gossip - last year at the DELOS corporation's android amusement park, there was a computer virus that affected all the robots there. The machines went rogue in all the theme parks, killing the guests. One of the robots from the Westworld theme park was a gunslinger that killed more people than all the other androids put together," Angel shrugged again.

"Are you saying - I was possessed by a robot cowboy killing machine?!" Xander instantly had a shocked look on his face.

"I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. The only other thing I heard is that the human workers were locked into the control room. They ran out of air and died," Angel shook his head.

"If all this is true - then why didn't DELOS close down?" Xander asked.

"Again, I don't know if it's true. But if it is...well, there must have been a cover-up. A Big Bad must have been behind cleaning up the mess, so that no one ever found out," Angel frowned.

Xander, not liking where this was heading towards, remained silent. Then he blurted out, "We already have enough trouble with Spike, we don't need *another* Big Bad around here!"

Angel couldn't help but silently agree.


	7. Chapter 7

17619 White Oak Drive Sunnydale, November 4th 1997

After Angel left, Xander finished watching IT then did some homework and fixed himself a quick dinner. He was very distracted, though...

{ A robot cowboy. I KILLED people while I was possessed by a Robbie the Robot! And yet, I can't remember any of it? How? And more importantly, WHY? }

Unable to figure it out, Xander yawned and eventually fall asleep on the bed. He started to dream...

In the dream, he was in the Old West dressed as a cowboy. Well, he was dressed in the same clothes he'd worn to the International Dance a few weeks ago, anyway. Good enough...

"Hello, Xander!" a very familiar male voice said, sounding amused.

Xander turned around around in shock to see the robot cowboy himself - the Gunslinger. Naturally, it has his face. "Why are you here?"

"I took over your body, fool. Draw!"

Time almost seemed frozen as the Gunslinger drew his gun. Xander did the same, but he was slower than the bad guy. And he knew it, which was why he jumped out of the way, as the Gunslinger opened fire.

The Gunslinger's bullets perforated a nearby barrel, as water poured out. Ignoring that, Xander aimed almost blindly and then opened fire himself. Unfortunately, he missed the bad guy completely - but the bullets hit another barrel of some sort. It must have been full of dynamite, as the barrel blew up and the Gunslinger caught on fire!

The robot's human-looking flesh and clothes burned, its face melting to show the intricate circuitry underneath. But that didn't stop the whacked-out android - the Gunslinger came at him, firing his gun again!

"Oh shit!" Xander dived out of the way, only just in time. Spotting the barrel of water from before, Harris grabbed it and threw it at the bad guy. The Gunslinger got splashed - which put out the flames, but also had another effect. Namely, the robot stopped moving and began to smoke, before it collapsed to the ground with a thud.

The dream ended as Xander jerked up with a freaked look on his face. "What the frack?!"

Sunnydale High School, November 5th 1997

The next morning at the school library, Xander wasn't too happy with the Scobby gang. "Okay, we need to talk."

"About what?" Willow asked, looking concerned.

"I know, okay? Angel came over to my house last night, and told me what happened during Halloween. You guys should have told me!" he said with a heavy sigh.

"We wanted to tell you, Xander!" Buffy insisted, wishing she's told him instead of Angel.

Oz sat at the table, not saying anything. Willow didn't say word either. Cordelia looked around at everyone and opened her mouth to say something, but then -

"I told everyone not to tell you, Xander," Giles said while wiping his glasses. "And before you ask why, nothing good comes from knowing what happens after being possessed, boy. You can trust me on this."

"You still should have told me, Giles," Harris replied, before he sat down in a nearby chair - trying to cool down. Xander wasn't sure if he should mention what Angel had said about the DELOS cover-up, but eventually decided not to. If the vampire wanted people (and for people, that meant Buffy) to know, he would have said something himself by now.

Suddenly wanting to be alone, Xander got up from the chair and headed for the library doors. Willow tried to stop him but he just told her, "Don't, Willow, I need to be by myself right now. I have a lot on my mind." He then exited the library without another word or a look back.

"Way to go, guys!" Cordy said bitingly. "Why did I even listen to you, Giles? He's right, you should have told him!" She left immediately herself.

DELOS lab, Westworld facility 1999

Nearly 18 months later, Jareth was putting the finishing touches into making the Gunslinger the perfect killing machine. Ethan watched as the demon also uploaded data into the CPU of the Angel-lookalike robot. This was so the Angel robot would have the real Angel's fighting skills, but be ten times more powerful and deadly.

Ethan still didn't think that was a good idea - making a minion so powerful that it would be an impossible enemy to defeat if it ever went rogue. Still, he was smart enough not to point that out to Jareth - the demon had a vile temper when he was riled up. Suddenly, it occurred to the chaos mage to wonder why Jareth had removed most of Xander's memory, so long ago. "Why get rid of Xander Harris' memory of Halloween, Jareth?"

"That boy was earmarked for something special by the Powers, Ethan. I may be powerful, but I'm not *that* powerful - and I'm not stupid enough to directly interfere with things that have Power, capital P, either."

This intrigued Ethan. "Something special, you say? What?"

"I don't know, and I don't care. I wouldn't be surprised if the plans concerning Harris failed, though - there have been rumors about the vampire with a soul losing his original purpose. Never mind - the whole point of all this, Ethan, is to kill that pesky Slayer, after all."

"Why not use the robot versions of Willow Rosenberg or Daniel Osbourne to kill the Slayer? And why wait so long?"

"Because it did not serve my interests to facilitate the Apocalypse - and those androids were made to be spies, that's all..." Jareth laughed, darkly evil.

Somewhere in Sunnydale, November 14th 1997

That night, Spike and his minions started digging close to the local Doublemeat Palace. The minions had brought the digging equipment and ground radar to find the Gem of Amara.

Instead of focusing on using the du Lac Cross and summoning the Order of Taraka, Spike been searching for the Gem to heal Drusilla. It went against his nature to do so, but Spike had heeded Dru's advice to lay low so the Slayer didn't show up and try to stop him. Still, it looked like that was about to pay off...

The ground radar picked up something buried far underground, and beeped loudly. Spike looked at the screen and told the minions, "Start digging 'ere, now!"

The undead started up their drills, digging through the ground. Some of the minions kept watch to make sure none of the blood bags in police uniform interfered. Spike ignored them - he was too focused on his sire, hopefully soon she would be restored to health!

Many hours later, the undead found a buried tomb - or maybe it was a crypt? - full with all kinds of treasures. The minions climbed down into the tomb, following Spike and Dru.

"We're rich!" said a particularly stupid minion, grabbing some of the valuables and putting them into his jacket pockets. The other minions quickly joined him, taking anything that looked like it was worth a buck.

Spike ignored them as he looked for the Gem of Amara, before abruptly snapping at the minions, "OY! Bloody gits, focus!"

"Over here, dear heart," Dru muttered, dragging Spike by the wrist over towards a large green gem in an ornate necklace around the neck of a skeleton.

"Is that it, luv?" Spike said excitedly.

"Nooooo..." Drusilla said disappointedly, before she perked up. "There!"

Spike spotted the small brass ring with the green gem she was pointing at, before he grabbed it and put it on the ring finger of her left hand. At once, Drusilla straightened up and her body glowed slightly, before she vamped out. "Spoike! It worked! I'm back!"

Spike let out a huge whoop of joy, before grabbing and kissing his undead girlfriend. "Let's pain this entire bleedin' town red with blood, pet! Starting with the Slayer, and her little friends!"

Not all that far away at her gallery, Joyce met with a killer robot masquerading as "Ted Buchanan"...


	8. Chapter 8

Joyce Summers' Art Gallery, Sunnydale, November 14th 1997

The deranged robot calling itself 'Ted Buchanan' had found itself yet another victim - Joyce Summers.

The original Ted, a sickly inventor back in the 1950s, had created the robot after his wife had left him. He'd intended for it to be a 'better' Ted Buchanan, possibly the man he'd wanted to be but had never been. Unfortunately, while Ted was brilliant with hardware, his programming skills left a lot to be desired - because the robot had then kidnapped Ted's ex-wife and held her captive in his bunker o' love until she'd died. Subsequently, the cycle had continued long after the original Ted's death, with three other women resembling Mrs. Buchanan being kidnapped and dying in captivity.

Smiling, the robot met Joyce at the art gallery where she worked. "Joyce! Sorry I'm late."

"Oh, that's all right. How was your day?" Buffy's mom smiled back.

"Well, it's computer sales. Pretty much what you'd expect, right?" Ted joked, causing Joyce to giggle.

Unbeknownst to either of them, the duo were being monitored by Willow and Oz - the robot spy versions that had been substituted for the real deal by Jareth, anyway. The Willow robot frowned at her 'boyfriend'. "What's it doing, trying to seduce Mrs. Summers?" she asked in confusion.

"Must be a programming glitch. You already reported this to DELOS, right?" the Oz robot asked.

"Yeah, why?"

The male robot shrugged. "Have to admit, we haven't exactly been keeping up appearances lately. So, want to go make out at the Bronze?"

The female robot could feel the emotional link to its human template respond, and very enthusiastically, to that idea. All it said, though, was, "Okay." Thus, the two 'teenagers' left...

Later at the abandoned warehouse that was his current lair, Spike made his plans to kill the Slayer.

"Once I kill the Slayer, luv? That bloody gun-toting little wanker is next!" He laughed in a darkly evil way.

"Spoike! No, don't you dare touch my Kitten!" Drusilla growled at him.

Spike looked ready to argue, but with his sire now finally healed thanks to the Gem, he decided against it. He simply said, "Fine luv, I won't hurt the trigger-happy little git." He lit a cigarette and put it in his mouth. "For now, anyway."

The Bronze, November 17th 1997

It had been a long day at school - so that night, Xander went to the Bronze to relax and unwind a little. He hadn't been expecting to meet Cordelia there, but he did so anyway. Huh, kinda odd how they kept running into one another so much this year...

He saw her holding court within the nightclub, wearing a stylish lavender-blue hip-hugging dress; one that did wonderful things for her cleavage! Shaking his head, he sat down at a booth alone. Xander then asked himself, what the heck was he doing with his life...

{ Willow and Oz paired off ages ago, and it's pretty darn obvious Buffy and Angel have done the same. Even Giles has got Ms. Calendar now! May as well face it - I'm the fifth wheel, or even worse, the *seventh* wheel around here, } Xander grumbled to himself. { Still, what are my options? Stop hanging out with the gang? Try to find a girlfriend of my own? Yeah, right. like that's gonna happen... }

"What are you doing here all alone?" Cordelia's voice distracted him from his thoughts.

"Just chillin'. Shouldn't you be with your friends?" Xander asked, as Cordy slid into the booth opposite him.

"Oh, please, they've all spread out looking for hunks and gossip by now! Seriously, dork, don't you know anything about girls?"

"Yeah, didn't you mention once that none of them would ever go out with me?" Xander joked, before he saw the glare on Cordelia's face. "What? Pretty sure you did..."

"What-ever," Cordelia glowered at him. She regretted saying that now - because darn it, she actually found herself physically attracted to the lame doofus! "What's going on with you and your tweako friends lately, anyway?"

Xander shrugged, not knowing that a Jamaican Slayer named Kendra had just arrived at the Sunnydale airport.

Or that Buffy was training with Giles at the school.

Or that Willow and Oz were watching a movie at the Sun Cinema, keeping up 'appearances'.

Or that Joyce had finally succumbed to her feelings, and started kissing Ted.

He also didn't know that Drusilla was watching him talking with Cordelia, while the demented vampiress was flitting in and out of the shadows within the Bronze.

{ Miss Edith says, Kitten mustn't talk to the wicked strumpet, } Dru thought crazily to herself. { Naughty, naughty girl. If Kitten doesn't watch out, she'll start stroking his fur and - oh! That's no way to behave! } the female vamp thought to herself angrily, as she suddenly had a vision of Xander and Cordelia caught in the throes of passion, kissing and groping one another. Then the clothes started flying, before the two bodies collapsed onto Cordelia's bed and then they started undulating wildly, moving to the thumping rhythm of the music -

Shaking her head to clear it, Drusilla left the Bronze and waited for her Kitten outside.

"If it wasn't for Angel telling me what happened on Halloween, I may not ever find out in the first place," Xander said with a sigh.

"Ugh, are you still focusing on that? Halloween was like weeks ago!" Cordelia snapped at him. "And aren't you even gonna *try* to be a gentleman, and offer to buy me a drink?"

Shrugging, Xander asked what she wanted and then wandered off to the bar - but unfortunately, by the time he got back, Cordelia was gone. { Probably found some rich and handsome-looking guy, and decided to milk him dry. } Deciding not to let the extra drink go to waste, he gulped it down before chugging the other one as well.

"That hit the spot!" Xander burped happily, before settling down to listen to the band play up on stage.

Elsewhere, Kendra silently jumped onto the back of a truck that was driving towards town. At 1630 Revello Drive, Buffy arrived home before her mother got there. And back at the Bronze, Xander and Cordy decided to leave the club for the night and headed towards their respective cars in the lot.

"You never got me my drink, loser!" she complained, as they walked along.

"Yes I did. YOU were the one who abandoned me, Cor. What happened, you suddenly found Mr. Right? Or maybe Mr. Right Now?" he fired back.

"Xander Harris, you're a complete dweeb!" Cordy snarled at him.

"Whatever." Harris ignored the insult, walking towards his uncle's car. But just then, Dru appeared out of the darkness.

"Hello Kitten," she said to him with a smile.

{ This chick is weird... } He thought to himself while backing away from her. "Sorry, I gotta go..."

No luck; with inhuman speed, Dru grabbed him. "You're coming with me," she purred in his ear. "We'll have such fun, Kitten, we will!"

Still fuming, Cordy turned around one last time - to see Xander being dragged away by a loony-looking brunette wearing a 19th century dress. Luckily, she knew enough by now to figure out her old sparring partner was being kidnapped by a vampire.

"Xander!" Cordy cried out. Heedless of the danger, or the voice in her head screaming at her not to be a complete *idiot*, she ran towards them - but it was too late. They had vanished into the darkness.

At that point, Cordelia noticed Xander had left his keys behind on the ground.

"I gotta talk to Giles - and probably Buffy as well, darn it!" Cordelia huffed to herself as she knelt down and picked up the car keys. "As if I don't have anything *better* to do on a Monday night..."


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Please review. And review often! I need to know if anyone likes this story!

Outside the Bronze, November 17th 1997

Cordy grabbed Xander's keys, and ran to her car. Once she was safely inside the vehicle, she pulled out her cell phone and called Buffy. "Hey, Buffy? We've got a problem, the Dork's been kidnapped..."

Elsewhere, after the movie was over, Oz and Willow ran into the Slayer named Kendra outside the Sun Cinema. Making small talk, the two robots offered to give Kendra a lift to wherever she wanted to go. After Kendra accepted the offer, the three of them got into Oz's van. Willow and Oz scanned Kendra with their robot eyes. The data subsequently appeared on Jareth's computer screen elsewhere at DELOS.

He grinned evilly. "So, the new Slayer has arrived in Sunnydale..."

Elsewhere, Dru dragged a struggling Xander inside the warehouse. Xander didn't like that at all. The vampires were eyeing him like a cat about to pounce on a canary...

"No one touches my kitten!" Drusilla growled at the minions. Instantly more concerned with survival than hunger, they all backed off.

Xander didn't like the odds here. No doubt he'd die if he tried to escape the warehouse. Maybe he could -

"You're safe with me, Kitten," Dru said to him, with what she thought was a cute smile. Even though to Xander, it was creepy as hell!

{ No way I can risk calling for help on my cell. } "Who are you? And what do ya want me with me?" he asked, trying to stall for time.

"I'm Drusilla, silly kitten! And we're here to have fun, o' course! Spike, I brought a guest!" the loony brunette called out.

Spike got up from the chair, and the look on his face was enough to practically freeze Xander's blood in his veins. "Good, now we can lure the Slayer to her death. You're lucky that I'm not going to kill you for what happened during Halloween, mate. Thank Dru for that." Spike blew smoke from his mouth, his lips twisted into a disgusted sneer.

Xander turned to see Dru smiling at him. Unable to think of what else to do, he thanked Drusilla politely. "Uh, yeah, well, gracias for that, I-I guess..."

"Come with me, kitten." The dark-haired vampiress hooked her arm around his, her smile growing wider.

{ Don't do anything to piss her off, } Xander thought to himself, as she led him away from the other vampires. { Even though you're scared to death, dude, DON'T get her angry with you! That way lies an early grave! }

Elsewhere, Oz, Willow and Kendra arrived at the high school in Oz's van. Buffy was already at the library, since Cordy had called her (and then Giles). Kendra met Giles and they shook hands.

"This is most extraordinary, I-I-I must say - two Slayers at once?" Giles said in consternation. "And, and you say your Watcher is, uh, is Sam Zabuto?"

"Dat is correct, sir," Kendra replied in her thick Jamaican accent. She then glanced at Buffy and then said, "And I don't understand - how is it me predecessor is still alive? I was taught dat dere was only one Chosen One at a time."

"Well, technically, I did die for about a minute," Buffy confessed uncomfortably, not wanting to think about that particular night. "I drowned, see -"

"Oh, wait, I remember this! The Doofus brought you back, after the hunk took him down to the sewers, right?" Cordy interrupted with a smile.

"Doofus? Hunk?" Kendra looked around in confusion.

"Yes, uh, never mind. We have a problem on our hands," Giles told them all, while wiping his glasses. "Earlier tonight, uh, Xander was taken by a vampire."

"What?!" Willow had a shocked look on her face.

"Yeah, Cordy was there, she saw it. So, what do we know about el vampira?" Buffy demanded, hoping Xander was alright.

"Brunette. British accent. And the way she dresses? Ugh! That *thing* musta been going for a the retro 19th century look, and failing miserably," Cordy replied. { I just hope Xander doesn't get killed or turned, } she thought privately to herself. "So what's the plan? Spread out and search the town?"

"I-I suppose so, yes. Buffy, we may need Angel's help for this," Giles said, as he put his glasses back on.

"Angel? You mean - Angelus? What madness is dis? You're gettin' *dat* vampire to help search for yer friend?" Kendra gave the gang an incredulous look.

"Angel isn't Angelus, okay? He's been a great help over the past year or so! And we gotta work as a team to save Xander!" Willow replied with fire in her eyes, as Buffy called Angel on her cell phone.

Back at the warehouse, Drusilla shoved Xander towards the bed. He stumbled a bit before he sat down on it, looking around the bedroom and seeing Dru's doll collection on a shelf on the wall. "Nice dolls you got there."

She laughed. "You're destined for great things, Kitten. The stars, they whisper their secrets to me - and the moon, and Miss Edith as well!"

"Yeah, well, tell my parents and teachers that, Drusilla." If he wanted to get though this alive, Xander figured he had to play along with this crazy vampire.

Time suddenly froze as the Big Bad himself, Jareth, appeared in the warehouse with the Orbs of Nezzla'khan in his black coat pockets. Jareth looked around the warehouse. "I like what they've done with the place..."

Chuckling, Jareth ignored the frozen Spike and assorted minions as he went to join Xander and Drusilla in the bedroom. "Well, well, well. Looks like Cordelia has some competition!" He chuckled again, evilly.

He took out the Orbs of Nezzla'khan from his coat pockets. The Orbs glowed and transferred their powers to Xander. His body briefly glowed purple with mystical power! As soon as the transfer was done, the Orbs of Nezzla'khan vanished from Jareth's hands. Somewhere in the Higher Realms, a number of plans collapsed into dust...

Jareth disappeared and time became unfrozen. Drusilla resumed chattering nonsense to her captive, while Spike grew more and more impatient outside the makeshift bedroom. "What's she doin' in there with that bloody berk?" William the Bloody complained to himself.

Elsewhere, Angel showed up at the school library and *reluctantly* filled in the Scooby Gang about Drusilla, and his history with her and Spike. Afterwards they geared up, starting to make a plan for saving Xander.

{ It won't be easy since we're dealing with both Spike and Drusilla, } Angel ruminated to himself. Indeed, it was worse than even he knew - because Dru had the Gem of Amara!

Back at the warehouse, Spike knew the minions weren't happy that they couldn't feed on the human prisoner Dru had brought home. That was why he told them to go eat elsewhere to their heart's content - not like he needed them here to fight against the Slayer, while Dru had the Gem. Then Spike came into the bedroom, grimacing at the sight of Droopy Boy.

"Your mates should be coming 'ere to save you soon, whelp. Dru, luv, hope you're peckish - I told the boys to bring us take out."

"Let me guess, it's not noodles and rice?" Xander gulped. "Well, good thing I'm not on the menu, huh?" He joked with a fake laugh. "We all know you need me alive to lure Buffy here, right?"

"Aww. I'm going to turn you, my little Kitten, and make you my black knight," Dru purred in his ear.

"No, please! Not a big fan of eternity, here!" Xander recoiled away from her at once.

"Yeah, sod that! Seriously, Dru, forget it!" Spike snarled. "This little git is good for a quick meal, but turn anything else!"

{ Hey! } he thought automatically, but Xander managed to refrain from saying that out loud. Finding silence to be the best policy, he just hoped the Scooby gang arrived to rescue him soon.

Little did Xander know, he now had powers...


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Thanks Mike3207, and please keep the reviews coming. And everyone else reading this, please review as well!

Abandoned warehouse in Sunnydale's industrial district, November 17th 1997

"Like I said, luv, don't turn him. Kill him if you want, though - hell, either way, Dru... this git won't live long enough ta finish high school!" Spike shouted, before he turned and left the bedroom without another word.

"Awww. You're no fun today, Spoike!" Drusilla pouted, still in her vampire face.

Deep down, Xander knew Spike was right. { If Buffy hadn't come to Sunnyhell, I might not have lived even this long. } Managing to focus, he edged away from Drusilla, not liking the way she was now looking at him...

Westworld facility, 1999

In one of the various DELOS labs scattered throughout the theme park, the Gunslinger was finally rebuilt. Dismissing Warren Mears from his presence, Jareth uploaded all the data he'd gotten from the Willow-bot and Oz-bot. Kendra's data was also downloaded into the Gunslinger robot's brain. Ethan stood around, feeling more or less like a fifth wheel, until he decided to ask:

"Why put both Slayers' data into the Gunslinger?"

"I have my reasons, Ethan. Right, that's done. Oh, almost forgot - I've created a new prototype robot. I want you to see it - come!"

They departed the lab and headed towards to Jareth's hidden lab within DELOS. "Here we are, Ethan. Behind this wall is my hidden lab," Jareth told his minion.

{ First the hidden area where the witch and her boyfriend were being kept, now this. How many other 'hidden' areas does this demon have? } Ethan suddenly asked himself.

Jareth put his hand on the wall, and the wall immediately slid to one side. They entered, and straightaway Ethan saw within the hidden lab - robots, working on dead bodies of young women (Slayers, most likely, since one or two of them still clutched a wooden stake in their hand) that had been killed off over many centuries (judging from the period clothing).

"What the devil are you up to in here, Jareth?!" Seeing the lab robots cut the human corpses apart made Rayne feel almost ill (but not quite. He'd seen worse in his time, after all.)

"Ethan, my dear friend, I'm creating an army of undead followers!" Jareth laughed in a darkly wicked way.

"Zombies? What exactly are you planning, then?" Ethan didn't like where this shit appeared to be going.

Jareth sighed and told him, "A seer once foretold my fate, Ethan. That's why I have been doing this for a long time. Don't ask for details - all I'll say is that it was foretold to me that the undead army won't be finished 'til after my death. Hmm - should I tell you what the seer told me about your fate, then?"

The Chaos mage grinned at him. "Oh, no thanks. That'd suck the fun out of everything!"

They walked through the lab to another room. They entered the room, and there was the prototype robot Jareth had mentioned before; a samurai, of all things.

"This is my new prototype robot for the new theme park, Ethan. I plan to open called Feudal Japan World later this summer. We have already have Medieval World, Roman World and Westworld, after all."

"A new theme park, Jareth, really?" Ethan had a puzzled look on his face. "Now why-?"

"I'm running a business here, after all, Ethan."

{ Of course. Ask a silly question, and all that. } Still, Rayne knew better than to say that aloud. Plus, he had to admit, such a thing would definitely appear to the Asian market - and being an entrepreneur himself, Ethan figured Feudal Japan World might actually be a big hit with the ignorant tourists...

Sunnydale, November 17th 1997

The Scooby gang, Angel and Kendra had split into teams: Buffy with Angel, Kendra with Giles, and Cordy with both Willow and Oz. They were all looking for Xander, and they knew they had to hurry; the guy might have already been killed, the undead were not known for their ability to keep human captives alive for long.

An hour or so after they'd left the library, Angel and Buffy got lucky; they found some of Spike's minions, who'd been told to go feast on the human citizens and bring 'take out' back to the warehouse later on. They were dragging two people with them...

"HEY!" Buffy snap-kicked one of the vampires directly in the face. Naturally, the bloodsuckers let go of their meals in order to fight the Slayer and Angel. Equally naturally, the two former captives ran for it without looking back even once.

After Buffy finished off her vampire, Angel managed to take his one prisoner - in order to find out where Spike and Dru's lair was.

"You know the drill. Where's Spike and Drusilla holed up?" Angel demanded calmly.

"What makes ya think I'm gonna tell a traitor like you anything?" the vampire snarled, struggling to get loose from Angel's grip.

"How about this?" Buffy took off her crucifix necklace that Angel had gifted to her nearly a year ago, wrenched open the vamp's mouth and shoved the cross inside, before slamming the minion's mouth shut.

The muffled screams of agony were ignored for nearly fifteen seconds, before Buffy ended the torture and yanked out the holy icon, shuddering from the smell. "Like Angel said, you know the drill. We can keep torturing you like this all night, so you may as well spill and save yourself a lot of pain. So, how about it?"

"Okay, look. You gotta let me go afterwards, or I'm not giving you squat!" the undead guy demanded, looking desperate.

"Fine, I'll let you go," Angel promised, raising his eyebrows to Buffy - who instantly managed to get his meaning.

"Okay. Alright. The lair's located in an abandoned warehouse on the edge of the industrial district, roughly a quarter-mile from the docks -" the minion started to babble.

"I know where that is," Angel nodded to Buffy.

"So let me go, already!" the vamp started to struggle again. Angel abruptly released him...

"Thanks for the info!" Buffy smirked, as she staked the vampire directly in the heart, who exploded into a pile of dust with the typical scream of an escaping demon. "And just so it's clear, *I* didn't promise to let you go!" Wasting no more time, she got out her cell phone and called Willow first and then Giles...

The two other teams promised to meet up with Angel and Buffy. Kendra and Giles got into the Watcher's car, while elsewhere Cordy and Willow and Oz got into Oz's van. They all drove to the warehouse in question to save Xander, and the brunette cheerleader hoped and prayed that they weren't racing to rescue a corpse...

At the warehouse, the other minions came back with flesh bags. "Boss? Which one do you want?" one of the dumber ones asked.

"Hang about..." Spike quickly retrieved Drusilla from the bedroom.

"Stay put, Kitten!" she told Xander, before leaving with Spike.

{ Thank God the nutcase is gone, } Xander thought to himself. He got up from the bed and looked around, but the makeshift bedroom had only one door and no windows - he was trapped, and he knew it.

Spike and Drusilla entered the main room. "Dinner's ready, everyone!" Spike grinned then vamped out. The rest as well, as Drusilla also vamped out. The vampires quickly bled their victims dry; and Xander could hear the death screams from the people being fed on, without being able to save them...

A few minutes later, the Scooby gang, Angel and Kendra finally showed up at the warehouse, quickly vacating the van and car. All of them had weapons! Kendra and Buffy took care of the undead guards outside of the warehouse, and then...

"Oh! The Slayer and her little friends are here to get my Kitten, Spoike!" Dru pouted again.

"Good, let them come for the git. But whatever happens, the Slayer will die tonight!" Spike grinned, wickedly evil.

The big showdown was about to begin...


	11. Chapter 11

Abandoned warehouse in Sunnydale's industrial district, November 17th 1997

The Scooby gang, Angel and Kendra burst into the warehouse!

"Angel. Still following the Slayer around like a lost puppy?" Spike asked mockingly, staring at the newcomers in contempt.

Drusilla briefly blurred and vanished, before reappearing – one of her arms wrapped around Xander's neck.

"Let Xander go right now, you thundering loony!" Buffy shouted, holding a wooden stake in her right hand.

"No, no, no! He's mine, naughty Slayer!" Drusilla hissed.

Kendra aimed her crossbow at her, and let loose with a loud TWANG! Drusilla pushed Xander out of the arrow's way, before she grabbed it in mid-air.

"That's not very nice, y'know. You could 'ave hurt my Kitten!" she growled at Kendra, looking offended.

Elsewhere, not far away, Spike and Angel were facing off. "You really think you can take me, old man?" Spike laughed.

"Spike, you may be older than you were back in the 19th century – but I can still take you any day." Angel got ready to take on Spike.

"We'll see about that!" Spike roared, before they started throwing punches at each other.

{ Oh, God, what the HELL am I doing here? } Cordy thought to herself in terror, as she fired an arrow at an incoming vampire, dusting it. { Holy crap, I did it! Yeah, that's right; no one messes with Queen C! }

In the meantime, Drusilla had attacked Kendra, slamming the junior Slayer into a nearby wall. Infuriated, Buffy headed towards Drusilla – but she turned and grabbed Buffy by the neck, easily tossing her to the ground. Shaking her head, Kendra got up and engaged the vampiress in combat – eventually breaking free from Drusilla's hold on her arm, as both Slayers took her on.

Unnoticed by the Chosen Two, Giles sliced through the vampires with a sword. Xander got his balance back, as Willow and Oz fired a couple of arrows - hitting the vamps that were about to attack him.

Twin explosions of dust filled the air.

"Thanks, guys!" Harris gave the undercover robots a quick thumbs-up. He then grabbed the arrows off the ground. { Better than nothing… }

While she was busy with Kendra, Buffy stabbed Drusilla in the back with her stake. But the vampiress didn't even appear to notice, and she explode into dust either! { Why didn't that work!? } Buffy thought to herself in confusion. { I'm sure I hit the heart – }

Drusilla knocked Kendra aside and, in an amazing show, flexibility and dexterity, pulled out the stake from her back. She then snapped the piece of wood in half, and threw it away.

"You've been a very bad Slayer!" Dru told her, as she faced Buffy and then finally vamped out.

Not far away, Spike jumped up and then side-swiped Angel. Angel hit the ground hard. Spike then gave Angel a hard kick to the head, knocking him out cold. { Sod you, poofter, I'll deal with ya later. Right now, I got a Slayer and a blood bag to kill… }

Spying his closest target, Spike headed for Xander while the others were busy fighting what was left of the minions. The Slayers were still trying their best against Drusilla. Angel was out for the count. That left the teenage ponce on his own, against William the Bloody. "Got no friends to back you up now, you wanker!"

Spike smiled at Xander and vamped out. The blood bag panicked, hurling the wooden crossbolts at him by hand. Spike easily knocked them out of the way, and jumped at his target, almost flying across the room –

Xander instinctively punched Spike in the face, which was the only thing he could think of. And much to his surprise, Spike flew across the warehouse, crashing into one of the tables. Breaking the table in half.

{ What the hell?! How did I that? } Xander asked himself with a shocked look on his face, as he briefly stared at his right fist.

"Spoike!" Drusilla cried out in distress. She punched both Slayers in the chest to get them out of her way, before she ran over to Spike and helped him up.

"Thanks, luv," Spike absently told her, as he wiped the blood from his mouth. { How the bleedin' hell did THAT happen? No, never mind! Lucky punch, or whatever… } "You'll pay for that, you git – oh yeah, you will..." He gave Xander the patented vampire death glare.

As the last of the minions were dusted, Buffy ran over to Angel to check on him. { Angel? ANGEL! }

Drusilla suddenly got a funny look on her face, as she started tugging Spike along with her towards the front door of the lair. "C'mon, Spoike, the stars say we 'ave to go. Now's not the time to finish this!"

Kendra was about to go after Spike and Drusilla as they escaped the warehouse, but then thought better of it. After fighting Drusilla, she knew she was no match for the demented undead - let alone taking on Spike as well. { The better part of valour, and all that. }

By this point, Cordy, Willow, Giles and Oz had gotten over their shock of seeing Xander punch Spike all the way across the room. Well, sort of. Cordelia was staring at her old sparring partner as if he was the Gunslinger, all over again…

"How did you do that, Xander?" Willow asked in awe.

"I have no clue, Willow. But I like it!" He grinned.

"Pretty cool," Oz said with a rare smile, before the undercover robot slipped back to its normal expressionless mask.

Not far away, Angel got up with Buffy's help. She had eyes for no one other than her undead boyfriend as she said, "Are you hurt, Angel?"

"No. But Spike will be, soon enough," Angel groaned, clutching his head where Spike had kicked it.

"Where's Spike and Drusilla?" Buffy asked, looking around.

"They got away, I-I'm afraid," Giles replied with a heavy sigh.

"Then we should get moving, before something else happens!" Cordy said grouchily, but secretly glad that Xander was alright.

Buffy was briefly tempted to burn down the warehouse so that the undead couldn't use it as a lair anymore, but eventually decided against it. She knew that sort of thing could get...complicated, if there were any witnesses. So the Scooby gang, Angel and Kendra then quickly piled into the van and car and drove off.

In Oz's van, Willow sat in the passenger seat next to Oz, who was driving. Xander was sitting in the middle between Cordelia and Kendra in the back of the van. He stared at the Caribbean girl and asked, "So, who are you, again?"

"I am Kendra, de Vampire Slayer," she replied, but not making eye contact with him.

"Huh?" Xander looked at her in disbelief.

"Yeah, there's two of them now. Remember when you brought the Fashion-less One back to life last spring? Kendra here got Called as a result," Cordy shrugged.

"Oh. But hey, you could have killed me with that arrow, ya know!" Xander wasn't sure if he could trust this new Slayer.

"You were in de way of me shot," Kendra suddenly gave him the evil eye.

{ Well, great. We're obviously off to a wonderful start with this Slayer, } Cordelia thought to herself in annoyance.

"I take it you don't have many friends, do you? Or people you work with doing the Slayage?" Xander demanded.

"No. I usually work wit' my Watcher, Mr. Zabuto, or alone. Never really was allowed to make friends, especially after I was called as de Slayer," Kendra told him.

Cordelia rolled her eyes, but said nothing. As Xander and Kendra continued to talk, she eavesdropped on Willow and Oz talking about the movie they saw at the Sun Cinema, before even that topic started to bore her. And just to top off the most *fabulous* evening ever, it started to rain when the van (and Giles's car) arrived at the school parking lot.

Elsewhere Spike, Dru and the last of their minions found a new lair - which was an abandoned old mansion on Crawford Street. "Bloody hell, Dru, why HERE? Look at all the windows, bloody sunlight is gonna get in all over the place..." Spike grumbled.

"Now, now, don't be cross. I love the sunshine!" Drusilla spread her arms apart, with that green Gem almost glittering on her finger.

Spike quickly shut himself up, as they made themselves at home. In a way, he supposed that their new lair's location made a twisted sort of sense – it was pretty unlikely that the Slayers or the other white hats would ever think to look for them here. And if any of the minions were careless enough to let themselves get exposed to the ruddy daylight? Well, that was their problem!

Across town, everyone exited the vehicles into the pouring rain and quickly ran towards the school. Ending up more than a little wet, no one said a word while walking down the hall towards the library. Once inside, everyone towelled off before sitting down at the table.

"This isn't going to take all night, is it, Giles?" Cordy asked, as she briefly yawned. "I mean, it's late, and I've got cheerleader practice tomorrow!"

"Not too long, no, err... let's get down to business," Giles replied. { I'm getting to old for this, but still. Needs must, call of duty and all that. }

"We failed. Both Spike and Drusilla are still out dere!" Kendra said bluntly. { Maybe I should go out and take down some the minions, at least, } she thought to herself.

"Yeah, true, but – listen, Kendra, what were you thinking, firing an arrow at Xander?" Buffy wasn't too happy with her.

"I t'ought I would take her head off wit' it, while de demon was distracted wit' him," she gestured at Xander, while glaring at Buffy.

"So much for working as a team," Willow sighed.

"Err, Kendra, Willow has a point, I-I'm afraid. We can't risk friendly fire," Giles said gently, as the Caribbean girl turned to look at him. "I, um, I know it's, err, something of an adjustment for you – but as long as you're here, I must ask you to take care with regards to civilian lives, as it were."

Kendra just shrugged as Giles decided to make some coffee to stay awake. It wasn't clear if she would accept Giles's orders, but she hadn't dismissed the Watcher's words out of hand, either.

"What happened to you tonight, Xander? Did, did Spike and Drusilla do anything to you?" Buffy asked with a worried look.

"Nope. Weird as, but that Drusilla vamp wouldn't let Spike lay a finger on me. Same with the other vamps. Apparently, she wants to turn me herself as some point. Don't know what she was thinking..." Drusilla was pretty crazy, and Xander hoped he didn't run into her again anytime soon.

"You have no idea, Xander," Angel said, wishing he'd never turned Dru in the first place. "But if she's got you in her sights, you need to watch your back from now on. Don't go anywhere alone, and stay inside after dark." Xander just shrugged and nodded, that made sense to him.

"Okay, getting back to business? I stabbed Drusilla in the back, I'm sure I hit her heart - but she didn't turn to dust, Giles!" Buffy suddenly exclaimed.

"Yes, I saw dat as well. Do ya have an explanation for dis, Mr. Giles?" Kendra nodded.

"Oh...well, l-let me think," the Watcher stammered, suddenly at a loss. He was silent for nearly a minute, thinking over any legends that might explain what the Slayers had witnessed. There was nothing, until he finally remembered – something. "Was Drusilla wearing some kind of, of gem?"

"I think so, Giles. Pretty sure I got a glimpse of a green rock on her ring finger," Buffy mused, before turning to Kendra – who nodded, indicating that she'd seen it as well.

"Okay, and why would that matter?" Cordy asked, with a bored look on her face.

"There's a legend – I'll not bore you with the details, but suffice it to say this gem is called the Gem of Amara. It's, it's the vampire Holy Grail, as it were – it gives the wearer the ability not to be killed by anything; staking, fire, decapitation, the lot," Giles said with a heavy sigh.

"No. It can't be!" Angel looked horrified.

"Just great, a unkillable demon!" Kendra said, slamming her hands on the table. "Mr. Giles, what do we do?"

Giles looked at his watch. "I'll have to inform the Council, get everyone I can to help figure out a strategy to kill an, an unkillable vampire. But, uh, for now - it's getting late," Giles said, finishing his coffee. "You, you should all go home and get some sleep. Kendra, you'll come home with me." The brown-skinned girl nodded, deferring to the British man's authority.

"He's right, we've got school tomorrow," Willow yawned. She looked around, but at this point Angel had already made his exit. "Darn it, Xander's right – we need to put a bell on Angel, or something..."

The Scooby gang and Kendra subsequently left the school library, heading back to the parking lot. Giles told Kendra that he had a guest room she could stay in for the time being, which she graciously accepted. They got into Giles' car and drove off, while Willow got into Oz's van and the undercover robot drove her home. Which left Buffy, Xander and Cordy standing around, looking at one another.

"Oh, fine. I guess I can give you two a ride!" Cordy wasn't too happy about that, but knew that not to offer would make her look petty and ungrateful for all the times Buffy had saved her life so far.

"Thanks, Cor, you're the best!" Xander gives her a thumbs-up, while Buffy rolled her eyes.

Without a word, they got into Cordelia's car - which roared off in the direction of Revello Drive. She dropped Buffy off first, then she headed for the Bronze where Xander's uncle's car was still waiting at the parking lot. Cordy handed Xander his keys. "You might need them, dork."

"Thanks, Cor." He was about to say something else but, after seeing the look on the brunette's face, decided against it. { Good thing I'm wearing a hoodie, } he thought, as he put up his hood as a sort of protection against the rain. "See you tomorrow, Cordelia."

"Whatever. Just - don't get kidnapped by vampires again."

"I'll try not to." He got out of the car and into the rain, which had started up again. He quickly ran to his uncle's Chevy and unlocked the car door. Xander then drove home, as Cordelia did likewise.

A while later, Joyce came home from her date with Ted. "I had a wonderful time, Ted."

"Me too. So, when am I gonna be meeting your daughter?" the Ted Buchanan robot asked with a smile.

"It's too late tonight. Maybe next time?" Joyce mused.

"Sounds good. Well, good night Joyce!" Ted gave her a quick kiss before walking back to his car.

Buffy was asleep in bed when Joyce briefly checked in on her. The Summers mother smiled, thinking that her life was going pretty good right now!

Abandoned mansion on Crawford Street, November 18th 1997

As the midnight hour passed, a new arrival caused some raised eyebrows for Drusilla, Spike and their minions.

The vampire introduced himself as Count Orlok. He wore a long, black coat and pants with black shoes. He had pointy ears, pointy teeth, an old-looking face and very long, canine-like fangs. Count Orlok strolled in front of the roaring fireplace, looking at the vamps gathered around him.

What no one knew was that the so-called Count was Buffy's old friend, Billy Fordham. Ford had come to Sunnydale to surprise Buffy, but mostly to find a vampire to turn him. He didn't have much time left to live, and thanks to a bizarre set of circumstances, he'd gotten his wish; but not from Spike...

"I have guests!" Count Orlok grinned. He had been squatting in the mansion since he'd been turned, after all.

"Oh…a human trapped in a vampire's body," Dru said with a dreamy voice. "How nice!"


	12. Chapter 12

17619 White Oak Drive Sunnydale, November 18th 1997

Xander was deep in thought, as he drove home. He'd never really thought about his future after high school. But ever since meeting that nutty vampiress Drusilla, and listening to what she'd had to say... not to mention Angel's warnings earlier tonight...

{ Am I really destined for great things? Maybe I should do better in school, so I don't end up like my parents. After all, I wanna do more with my life than say 'Do you want fries with that?' at the local Doublemeat Palace... } Xander thought broodily, before starting to think about something else. Make that *someone* else.

Cordelia Chase.

{ Hmm, is it weird or what how Cordy and I haven't fought anywhere near as much as we usually do, since the start of the school year? } Xander asked himself. { Well, I suppose since I saved her life from that fire when Daryl Epps was about to make her the Bride of Frankenstein, she might have decided to act like a human being instead of such a... okay, I don't wanna say bitch, but if the shoe fits... }

No, wait – it had been more than that, lately. Take what had happened tonight; six months ago, hell even three months ago, Cordelia wouldn't have raised the alarm after Drusilla had kidnapped him that way. The Chase girl would have convinced herself that it was none of her business, and maybe called 911 if she was feeling generous; which, in this town, would have resulted in the cops conducting a brief search during the daylight hours before writing it (and him) off as a PCP-related 'gang attack.'

"Maybe she's changing – that could be a good thing, right?" Xander asked himself about Cordelia, as he continued to drive the mostly deserted streets of Sunnydale.

Over at the old Crawford Street mansion, Spike told the minions to block out the windows throughout their new lair, sun-proofing it as much as possible before dawn. He'd realized that even though it didn't really matter what happened to the cannon fodder, it was probably best to not let them needlessly get burned up by the sunlight – it was a *pain* getting replacements, especially after the vamps previously loyal to the Annoying One had started spreading the rumors about what had happened to that little git.

"Good idea," Count Orlok said, after William the Bloody had barked out his orders. "And before you say anything, I give you permission to stay in my home."

"YOUR home?" Spike sneered. "And wot permission is that, mate? Fer that matter, what makes you think I'm even gonna let ya stay here?" William demanded.

"I've been living here, if you'll pardon the expression, for a few weeks now," Count Orlok replied. "So how do you know there aren't boobytraps all over the place that will destroy you and your minions, once I'm no longer around to disarm them?" He smirked at Spike's enraged expression. "Of course, you could always leave..."

"I'm bloody well tempted to," Spike muttered, looking around in annoyance.

"But Spoike, I like this place," Drusilla pouted. "I don't wanna go! Oooh, look, the courtyard's so nice..."

"Dru, I'm sure there's plenty of other places we could... oi, don't wander off, luv! We don't need them Slayers and their pals to find us! Alright, fine, we can stay here," Spike grumbled, catching his sire in his arms before Dru smiled and kissed him hungrily.

Count Orlok was glad to see true love of the undead variety blossoming before him. "Well, since you and Drusilla are staying, we'd best sort out a roommate agreement. Luckily, there's plenty of room for everyone, and there's a lot of bedrooms. Beats sleeping in a coffin!" the former Billy Fordham laughed.

Over at White Oak Drive, Xander parked his uncle's car in front of the house. He locked the car and entered the house, trying not to make any noise as he headed upstairs. The sounds of the TV could be heard coming from his parents' room, but he doubted they were still awake. It was long past midnight, after all.

After changing clothes, Xander did some homework and then went to bed. He hoped that the death screams he'd heard at the warehouse and being alone with vampires didn't haunt his dreams.

On the other side of town, the Ted Buchanan robot was at home reading a book. He'd gotten the house dirt cheap from a seller that was more than glad to move away from Sunnydale way back when, and since the guy had left everything he had behind, the robot had let him live to enjoy life elsewhere. Being a robot, he didn't need sleep - or food, for that matter. 'Ted' slept and ate only to keep up the human façade to fool people about what he really was.

"Ah, Joyce. Honey, we'll be together soon," the mechanical serial killer chucked to itself. "I can't wait to bring you home..."

Little did 'Ted' know that there were other robots present in Sunnydale, not just him. The Willow-bot and the Oz-bot had been keeping an eye on the psychotic robot, sending the collected data to Jareth. The demon hadn't yet informed them on what he was going to do about 'Ted', but the Scooby spies suspected their creator would do something soon. The crazed machine was eventually going to draw too much attention to itself.

The next morning, Xander got up and went downstairs for breakfast. Afterwards, he got ready for school and went out the door to catch the bus. Later at Sunnydale High, Xander met up with Buffy and Willow at the school.

"Did you have any bad dreams about Drusilla, a-and all those people that were killed, Xander?" Willow asked with a worried look. "I mean, you, you were kidnapped, so it would have been a very stressful -"

"Nope, no nightmares for me, Wills," he reassured her at once. "Check out my subconscious, it's a vampire-free zone!"

Buffy rolled her eyes before the trio were joined by Oz, and then they went off to homeroom.

Back at the old mansion, Count Orlok was sound sleep with his arms crossed over his chest, laying on the bed. The minions were likewise sleeping in their own bedrooms. Spike was sleeping on the bed in the bedroom he shared with his sire, while Dru was having a vision of her 'kitten.'

The only thing was, this Xander was a vampire dressed in a black leather jacket, white shirt, and black pants and black shoes. He was with another vampire, the Slayer's red-haired friend; the cute li'l Willow tree. She was dressed in a leather black outfit with red sleeves and red top, with leather-heeled boots that were also black.

{ Ohhh… so that's what was supposed to happen, if the nasty Slayer never came 'ere! } Dru quickly decided to keep this vision to herself. The moon and the stars would be ever so cross if she shared their secrets with anyone, they would; even her darling Spoike!

Back at the school, the three Scooby members entered their home room while Oz departed for his own one. Xander, Willow and Buffy took their seats just as the homeroom teacher entered the room. The teacher started writing on the room's white board, before a bored Xander started tuning out completely. Then his attention was captured by Cordelia, who was sitting surrounded by her popular friends, the Cordettes...

{ Huh. Has Cordy gotten a new hair style since last night, or what? } Xander frowned, suddenly annoyed with himself for paying that much attention to the harpy of his existence. Why the heck was he focusing so much on Queen C, anyway? It wasn't like she could hold a candle to Buffy, whom he'd decided was his one true love last year, right?

Right?

Completely ignorant of Xander's musings, Joyce was at her art gallery, setting up for yet another working day and her thoughts drifting to her new boyfriend every so often. She had no idea that a demon in disguise was looking at the artwork within the gallery. The disguised demon's name was Drej, and he'd been sent to Sunnydale to 'acquire' Ted's robot parts for Jareth. The demon was waiting until Ted revealed himself or got into a fight with the Slayer, whichever happened first. But right now, Drej had time to spare to see the sights, and familiarise himself with the target's latest human obsession.

Drej didn't care that the Ted Buchanan robot was at work right now, or that the homicidal robot couldn't wait to pay to pay Joyce a visit at her place for dinner tonight. The demon knew it would succeed in its mission eventually.

Failure was *not* an option.

Back at the school Xander, Willow and Buffy went to their first class after homeroom. Spying Oz talking with his band mates at the lockers up the hallway, Xander sighed to himself, { I haven't had the chance to test my super-strength power – assuming it wasn't some kinda fluke – since last night. Ought to do something about that, right? }

Cordelia was talking with her friends as the three Scooby members walked past them, but she made eye contact with Xander as he did so. Harris honestly wasn't sure what to do with that right now, so he turned his attention back to his best friends.

"Do you think we'll run into Spike and Drusilla anytime soon?" Xander could tell that Willow didn't want that to happen, and he couldn't blame her. If he never saw either of those two again, it would be too soon!

"I doubt it, Willow," Buffy said, remembering the punch Spike got from Xander. "I mean, I'm sure Kendra and I are on Spike's kill list, but he won't come after us until the odds are definitely in his favor."

"Come on, Buff, are you kidding me? The odds are *already* in Spike's favor! Or have you forgotten what the G-man told us last night, about that Gem thing?" Xander hissed at her, worriedly. "That loony Drusilla chick is pretty much *unkillable* right now! The only thing that saved our asses last night is her voluntarily deciding to leave! And if she *is* sun-proof nowadays, what's to prevent that crazy female vampire from showing up here at school during the daylight hours, for a quick rematch with you – with or without Kendra present?!"

Both girls looked stunned, looking at him as if they couldn't believe the words that had come out of his mouth. Shaking his head at their lack of foresight, Xander entered the computer lab and sat down in front of a computer monitor, before the blond and the redhead did the same thing; just before Ms. Calendar walked into the room.

"Good morning, class," said the brunette teacher. "Okay, I want you to start working this week's programming assignment..." The class started writing down notes for the assignment and began typing on their computers. They continued to do so for the rest of first period, before the bell rang and everyone started to pack up and leave.

After class Xander, Willow and Buffy stayed to talk with Jenny. "Rupert told me that you were taken prisoner by Drusilla last night, Xander – are you okay?" the undercover gypsy asked, looking concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Drusilla kept Spike and the other vamps at bay 'til the cavalry arrived," Xander frowned. "Not sure why, but since I'm still alive, at the moment I don't actually care..."

"Also, there's another Slayer in town named Kendra," Willow added. She didn't look too happy about that, but Xander assumed that was on account of the Caribbean girl had almost hurt him last night trying to take out Drusilla.

"Did Giles tell you about that whole Gem thing?" Buffy asked, looking rattled. Xander was almost sorry he's spoken to her so harshly earlier, but he figured better the Buffster stop thinking she was home free during the daylight hours, and be on guard for any undead lunatics that showed up to kill her here at the school!

"Yes, and frankly, it has me scared silly," Jenny replied. "You three better get going, though, you'll be late for your next class…"

A few hours later, within the library Giles and Kendra were doing research on any weaknesses that the Gem of Amara would have. But they hadn't found anything so far. The Council had no news either, and Giles had quickly hung up after making an international phone call to get back to the research. "Blast it, isn't there anything here other than myth or rumor?" he complained.

"We'll find somet'ing. I hope," Kendra briefly looked up from examining her latest tome.

Buffy, Willow, Xander and Jenny entered the library. Both Oz and Cordy were a no-show; Oz was with his band, and Cordelia was at cheerleading practice. It annoyed Xander to realize that he was subconsciously expecting the brunette beauty queen to be present, and it annoyed him even more to figure out that nowadays he was *wanting* Cordy around for this sort of thing...

"What do we know about the Gem of Amara, Giles?" Buffy said immediately.

"I don't – I, I have no idea, Buffy," Giles sighed. "Short of removing it from Drusilla's finger, you can't – she's invulnerable to harm of any kind, while she'd wearing that ring, that's the long and short of it. If anyone has a-any ideas…"

"I have an idea!" Xander spoke up, before they all turned to look at him. { Here goes nothing, } he thought to himself. "Okay, you called this thing the undead version of the Holy Grail, right? Lots of vamps familiar with the legend?"

"Well, yes," Giles nodded, looking confused. "Err, so?"

"So, the more famous and/or valuable something is, the more people will want it. And vamps being what they are, they won't care what they have to do or who they have to kill to get it! Maybe the best way to handle this is start spreading the news the Gem's been found; Angel could get the other vampires in town to go after Drusilla for us! If both her and Spike get dusted, so much the better; two fewer Big Bads to worry about. We just make sure that when the undead get ready to rumble, we're close by and able to get our hands on that darn thing, destroy it before any other vamp gets its claws on it!"

"Sad to say, but dat's the best idea I've heard so far," Kendra shrugged. She wasn't sure whether Xander's idea would work; too much depended on the element of chance. But if the Gem was destroyed, even at the expense of civilian lives, that was all for the best as far as she was concerned.

Buffy shook her head. "I got nothing better. Okay, I'll call Angel and tell him the plan."

"Tell him not to be too obvious," Giles cautioned her. Jenny didn't say a word.

Buffy told her undead boyfriend the plan, and Angel promised to be discreet. After a long day at school where she was worried about getting attacked by an unkillable vampire, Buffy got a call from her mom, telling her that she would be home a bit late. And she'll be bringing pizza home for dinner.

"That sounds great, mom. I'll tell my friends to come over for dinner, so bring enough for them too, okay? Bye, mom!" She hung up her cell phone, and noticed Willow and Xander walking up to her locker. "Hey guys. My mom wants to know if you guys want to come over for pizza tonight?"

Xander's eyes lit up. "Free food? I'm there Buff!"

"Me too. I'll tell Oz," Willow grinned.

"I'll give Cordy a call. What?" Xander asked in confusion, as the two girls stared at him. "I shouldn't?"

Willow and Buffy exchanged a look, before the Slayer gave him a fake smile. "Well, if you want to. I mean, if you don't think she'll laugh directly in your face or whatever..."

"Hey! I may not be Cordy's biggest fan, y'know, but if she hadn't done what she did last night – I'd probably be DEAD right now!" Xander snapped in annoyance. Buffy and Willow winced, looking at each other again guiltily. "Fine, I won't bother calling her. In fact, I might not bother showing up myself -"

"NO! I mean, that's fine, invite Cordy along to dinner tonight, i-if you want," Buffy said hastily, exchanging another glance with Willow. "I mean, the more the merrier, right?"

Xander merely raised an eyebrow before asking to borrow Buffy's cell phone, suddenly reminded of how the Slayer had practically used him as a stripper's pole at the Bronze a few months back. He wasn't sure why, but he got the feeling things were... changing around here...

Later that night, Angel headed over to Willie's bar, hoping that Buffy's plan didn't end up biting him in the as s somehow. He entered the demon bar and saw a lot of vamps and demons drinking and talking animatedly. Recalling the Watcher's advice to be subtle about this, he suddenly decided to do the exact opposite – because he knew results were needed fast, and the British guy was hopelessly stuck in the Council's way of doing things.

"Listen up, everyone! I have news!" Angel called out. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him. "The Gem of Amara has been found! It's up for grabs to anyone who's willing to do what it takes, to get it away from Spike and Dru!" he tried to get the undead crowd pumped up.

"Really?! It's mine!" one of the vampires proclaimed, punching the vampire next to him directly in the face. A fight broke out in the bar, before the vampires and demons that weren't knocked out cold left the establishment.

Willie wasn't exactly happy about the damage caused by the bar fight. "I hope you can pay for this mess, Angel?" Willie gave him a hard look. Off Angel's return glower, the snitch backed off; but only a little. "What? You denying that you didn't cause this mess, yelling out the big news like that? I got expenses to cover, y'know! And it wouldn't surprise me if Spike shows up later on, and takes his anger out on me for what you did!"

Angel threw Willie a c-note before departing in annoyance. The man was a weasel, but he had a point; plus, his type couldn't be pushed too far into the enemy's camp without becoming useless as an information source. { I better chase after the crowd, see if I can figure out where Spike and Drusilla have holed up since last night... }

Westworld facility, 1999

Jareth suddenly decided to take some time off work for some R and R. Oddly enough, that meant the demon was in the living room of his mansion, sitting on the couch and watching Doctor Who on his large screen TV.

Ethan walked in with a cup of tea. "So... this is what you do during your time off, is it, Jareth?"

Jareth gulped down his rum in a wine glass. "Sometimes I watch TV, Ethan, other times I work out. Honestly, you should do the same!" he chuckled.

Ethan sighed and sat down on the other side of the couch. { What am I doing here? } he asked himself, and not for the first time, before he focused on what was on the telly. { Oh, I remember this episode – go the Daleks, they're my favorite pepper pot! } Ethan chuckled to himself


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: Mike3207, thanks for the latest review. And as for Kendra and Xander, I'll keep that in mind for the future - but for now, Harris is subconsciously looking elsewhere. :)

Outside Willie's Alibi Room Sunnydale, November 19th 1997

Angel discreetly followed the vampires and demons that left the bar, figuring that with luck, he'll find Dru and Spike's new lair later tonight. He was hopeful that the plan his mortal acquaintances had come up with would work, as the Gem was far too tempting a target for any vampire to resist.

Elsewhere, earlier, Xander, Willow, Oz and Cordy arrived at Buffy's home before Ted did. "You came just in time," Joyce said with a smile. "I've ordered the pizzas, and Ted should be here soon."

"Who?" Buffy asked at once.

"Oh, Buffy, I need to talk with you in private..." Joyce escorted her daughter to the kitchen, and less than thirty seconds later Buffy could be heard to scream, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU'RE DATING THIS TED GUY?!"

Both Willow and Oz still weren't sure what Jareth's plans were with regards to the Ted-bot, and so kept quiet. Xander was stunned silent, but Cordelia said cynically, "Well, it sounds like *someone* has got mommy issues."

"Cordelia! That's not nice," Willow said sternly.

"What my girlfriend said," Oz nodded, curling his arm around the redhead.

Cordy glanced at Xander, who just shrugged without saying anything; and so she took that as unspoken agreement that she was right.

Over at the Sun Cinema, Drej was watching a retro screening of The Lost Boys - when Jareth appeared out of nowhere in the empty seat next to him. "The Lost Boys is one of my favorite movies," Jareth commented with a smile.

"Jareth. Why are you here?" Drej asked politely.

"I'm here to see how things are going, Drej."

"I don't have the robot parts yet," the minion replied, still watching the big screen.

"Hurry up, then. I got a lot of data from my two spies on the Ted Buchanan robot," Jareth grinned. "Oh, and make sure no one gets in the way when you grab the parts."

"Don't worry. The Chosen Ones are as good as dead, Jareth!" Drej smiled evilly.

"Don't kill the Slayers," Jareth warned him. "I have my own plans for them."

"Too bad; it's been centuries since I drained a Slayer of their essence," Drej sighed heavily. Jareth vanished while Drej started chuckling, "Those Frog brothers, they totally crack me up..."

Elsewhere, Ted arrived at the Summers' house, pulling up into the driveway inside his car. Ted grinned evilly to himself, before he knocked on the front door. Joyce opened the door and smiled at him. "Hello, Ted."

"Hi Joyce." He entered the house, giving her a quick peck on the cheek. "Thanks for having me over for dinner!"

"You came just in time, actually; the pizza's arrived. Ted, this is my daughter, Buffy. And her friends, Xander, Willow, Oz and Cordelia," Joyce introduced everyone.

"Nice to meet you all," Ted smiled at the teens.

{ There's something off about this Ted guy, } Xander thought to himself, as everyone grabbed a piece of pizza and a can of soda and then sat down at the dinner table, and started eating. { I dunno what it is, but something... feels wrong... } He glanced over at Buffy, who was watching Ted closely. { And I may not be the only one who thinks that. }

Elsewhere, Angel found where Spike and Dru's new lair was located - the old mansion on Crawford Street. Keeping to the rear, he followed the vampires and demons inside. Within the mansion, Spike, Dru and Count Orlok heard loud noises outside.

"We got trouble, Spike. The news broke at Willy's, and lots of vamps are breaking in, wanting that Gem!" one of the minions reported.

Spike was no fool, he knew the situation was now untenable as quantity had a quality all its own. "Damn it. Whoever did this will get their bloody throats ripped open! And sorry, luv, but that Gem has gotta be destroyed, before one of those tossers manages to hurt you!"

Dru pouted, but took the brass ring off her finger and handed the Gem over to Spike. And not a moment too soon, as the mob broke into the mansion's ballroom where everyone was gathered.

"Gimme that Gem!" one of the vampires shouted, before someone staked him and then the killer shouted the exact same thing, before she was dusted as well and the chant echoed throughout the room.

Without hesitation, Spike smashed the Gem when, after placing it on the floor, he hit it with a crowbar. There was a brief glow of green light, and then it was gone. "Oi, you bloody wankers, it's gone. Now bugger off, the lotta ya!" Spike yelled. "Or I'll rip your bleedin' heads off!"

"Shit! I'm out of here," a disappointed-looking demon said.

"Me too," replied another demon, now looking bored with the whole thing.

"Damn you, Spike!" a ticked-off vampire cursed William the Bloody. But he and the others all left the mansion, sighing and empty handed.

Once they all left, Angel headed off home himself. { That ended well, and with no bloodshed, } the ensouled vampire thought to himself. { More importantly, Buffy's safe now from an unkillable Drusilla. After all – Dru could have massacred her, along with all her friends! }

"Oooh. My Gem," Dru pouted sadly.

"Indeed. What a waste," Count Orlok sighed. { I wonder if the Gem of Amara can be repaired with magic? } He watched Spike, Dru and the minions leave the room, before the former Billy Fordham picked up the tiny, broken pieces of the Gem and pocketed them an evil grin. { Can't hurt to try, anyway. }

Back at 1630 Revello Drive, after dinner was over Ted kissed Joyce goodnight, said goodbye to the gathered teens and left the Summers house. Ted then got in his car and drove off. { I can't wait for next time, } the Ted-bot chuckled to himself. { The delinquent daughter will have to go, of course, and I can distract her friends with that Dematorin-laced food – and after that, Joyce and I will finally be together forever! }

"What do you think of Ted, Buffy?" Joyce asked, back inside the house.

"Uh, he seems nice. I guess?" She looked back at her friends for backup, but they all looked at each other, not saying a word. { Thanks heaps, guys! } Buffy sighed to herself. "So, how long have you two been…?" she trailed off, not sure how to phrase it properly.

"Not all that long, actually," Joyce replied, now thinking that maybe it had been a mistake to introduce her boyfriend to her daughter in such a public setting. "Well, I better clear away the pizza boxes and everything -"

"Oh, we can do that for you, Mrs. Summers," Xander said hurriedly.

"Yeah, it'd be our way of saying thanks for inviting us over for dinner," Cordelia said with a quick shrug.

Joyce smiled at her, and the rest of Buffy's friends. "You're welcome, dear, and that's very kind of you to say so. Well, in that case, it's been a long day and I'd best be going to bed. Thank you all for coming – and don't stay up too late, Buffy!"

"Sure thing, mom," said Buffy, "Good night."

"Good night, Miss Summers," the others echoed afterwards, waving goodbye as Joyce went upstairs for bed. Not surprisingly, as soon as she was gone the Scooby gang started to talk about Ted.

"Okay, what did you guys think of him?" Buffy demanded in a demanding tone of voice.

"I dunno. Maybe it's my 'virgin sacrifice for a demon' thing talking, but that Ted guy seemed just a little *too* nice to be normal for me," Cordy said, shaking her head.

"Yeah, I betcha he's hiding something," Xander didn't trust Ted any more than Cordelia did. "I got a funny vibe off of him right from the start, and in this town, there's no such thing as being overly paranoid!"

"Maybe we should go to Ted's house, see if he's hiding anything," Oz suggested.

"I don't know about that - breaking into someone's home is wrong," Willow replied with a heavy sigh.

"Good point. Will, see if you can find anything on him online first," Buffy said, thinking that Xander was probably right - Ted might be up to something not good.

The next moment, Buffy's cell phone erupted into life and she accepted a call from Angel. She listened, and he told her how the plan went well and the Gem had been destroyed. "Thanks Angel, that's great news! I'll see you tomorrow night, bye." She disconnected the call and glanced around at her friends. "Angel just called, the plan worked – the mob showed up and Spike instantly got rid of the Gem." She smiled, relieved that the latest Hellmouth drama had been resolved without anyone on her side getting killed or injured.

"That's good," Xander said, smiling himself. "So, clean up detail?"

Everyone started getting rid of the pizza boxes and empty soda cans, and a few minutes later Xander, Oz, Willow and Cordy went home. Buffy herself went upstairs, took off her clothes, brushed her teeth and then went to sleep.

Sunnydale High School Library, November 20th 1997

At school during lunch period, Xander was finishing his book report. Oz was sleeping with his head down on the table.

Ignoring both members of the Y chromosome club, Buffy watched Willow look up information on Ted Buchanan. The Slayer was grateful that Kendra was off doing her own thing after learning the Gem had been destroyed, that Cordy was with her popular friends in the school cafeteria, and that Giles was with Ms. Calendar at some faculty meeting or whatever. This particular investigation needed to be kept on the down-low, at least for now.

A few minutes later, "Oz! Xander!" Willow quickly relayed the information she and Buffy had found. "Ted Buchanan has been married four times, and he's a very successful computer salesman." Willow handed Buffy a printed sheet with Ted's address.

"Thanks, Willow..." The Slayer stared at the printed sheet before exclaiming, "His first marriage was in 1957? Come on - Ted musta been what, six years old?!"

"Okay, then either our boy is a Mormon, or Wills has screwed up being Net Girl, or I was right last night – something's hinky about this Ted guy," Xander proclaimed, finishing up his book report.

Willow sighed and said, "I didn't want to mention this before, 'cause it might be nothing, but me and Oz saw Ted at the art gallery the other night. And he was - getting way too close with Buffy's mom, if ya know what I mean."

"No I don't, and quite honestly, at this point I don't want to," Buffy replied, before making a decision. "We go with Oz's plan; sneak into Ted's house when he's at work, and check to see if he's hiding any secrets there. I don't want any of you guys to spy on Ted yourselves, that's too risky right now."

"What's the risk? You think he's a demon in disguise or something?" Xander asked.

Willow ignored the question, spying that Oz was still asleep. "Wake up, Oz!" Willow started shaking her boyfriend. "Did you hear what Buffy just said? We're going to try your plan of breaking into Ted's house, and seeing what we can find."

"Sounds cool," Oz yawned. "When?"

Buffy shrugged, she wasn't sure. { We've got school during the day, and Ted might be home after hours. Maybe I can get Angel to do it? No, wait, that invitation barrier won't let him in, darn it! }

"So, we wait for Ted to do something odd or what, Buff?" Xander asked, wanting to do something different than just attending school classes during the day.

"I don't know. I guess," Buffy frowned, before the bell rang: indicating the end of lunch time and the start of the next period.

Soon, Xander found himself sitting next to Cordelia in English class, waiting for the teacher to come in. He was rather surprised when the brunette leaned across and whispered to him, "Where the heck were you during lunch? I looked for you in the cafeteria, but you weren't there!"

"Yeah, I know. Book report in the library I had to finish up. Plus, y'know, making plans to break into that Ted guy's house," Xander whispered back to her.

Cordelia looked at him weirdly. "Okay. Have fun with that!"

Xander sent her an amused smirk. "Don't worry, Cor. These days, I wouldn't dream of doing anything illegal without inviting you along first."

"Thanks a lot," Cordy scowled at him, before the teacher came in and any further conversation had to be put on hold.

Later that day at the old mansion, Count Orlok was the only vampire still awake, holed up in his room. He had put the pieces of the Gem of Amara in a lock box for safekeeping, at least for now. He still had some blood bags he'd stolen last Halloween night, and decided to treat himself to some rare B-negative.

Count Orlok drank the blood in a glass cup, with an evil grin on his face…


	14. Chapter 14

Ted Buchanan's residence Sunnydale, November 20th 1997

That night, Ted put his plan into gear and added some drugs into his home-made mini-pizzas and baked cookies, with a huge grin on his face. "Oh, Joyce, my love - soon!"

At roughly the same time, Angel paid a visit to the Scooby gang at the school library and told them where Spike's and Drusilla's new lair was located. Namely, the abandoned old mansion on Crawford Street. But Angel didn't know about Count Orlok...

No one knew about the former Billy Fordham yet, Buffy's ancient fifth grade crush from Hemery High. But the odds were that they would. And soon.

Kendra, who had not returned to Jamaica so far because her Watcher had told her that the 'dark power' she'd been sent to deal with was yet to be extinguished, was wanting another shot at Drusilla. Angel told Kendra that while Spike had destroyed the Gem of Amara, directly attacking Spike and Drusilla's lair right now was a recipe for suicide, given the number of minions present.

"A-angel raises a, a valid point, I'm afraid. I must warn you not to go to this old mansion in order to, to face Spike and Drusilla alone," Giles warned Kendra. It was a warning to both Slayers, but mostly her.

"And if either or both of you Slay-gals plan on going to that old mansion anyway, leave *me* out of it," Xander said in no uncertain terms; he'd had enough of Dru and Spike to last him a lifetime.

"Awwwww, don't you want to visit your vampire girlfriend, doofus?" joked Cordelia. Oz chuckled, Willow rolled her eyes, Buffy looked disturbed, whereas Xander just sent the Queen of Mean a glare.

"You like demon girls, Xander?" Kendra asked with a raised eyebrow.

Xander sighed and said, "No offense, Kendra, but are you crazy?!"

Buffy tried not to laugh at the look on her best male friend's face. "So, Giles, what's the plan on the dealing with Spike and Drusilla?" the blonde Slayer asked, she wanted to kick Spike's ass and get rid of both him and his undead nut job.

Giles sipped some tea, before he set the mug down. "I have no idea yet, Buffy," the Watcher said with a sigh. "I've been in touch with the Council -"

"And what did the Tweed Brigade have to say?" Buffy interrupted.

"The, the task force that was on its way here to help us deal with the Gem has been redirected elsewhere," Giles admitted. "An unexpected emergency, you understand."

"I don't get it. I mean, we had that near-apocalypse back at the end of sophomore year, and now this weird mojo gem could have resulted in a massacre. And yet your Council only has one – sorry, two right now – Slayers stationed here, to prevent disaster? Shouldn't you guys have more people in Sunnydale?" Cordy asked, looking exasperated.

"It's not dat simple," Kendra shook her head.

"Indeed. This, this Hellmouth is only one of many, even though it's the most active one in the world, a-a-and the Council's resources are, are stretched thin keeping a lid on all the others," Giles said, taking off his glasses and polishing them briefly.

"That sucks," Xander complained, unconsciously moving closer to Cordelia.

"Gotta agree," Oz nodded, likewise moving closer to Willow.

"Well, yes. Err, you'll keep an eye on the mansion until we've come up with a definite plan of attack, yes?" Giles asked Angel, who nodded silently. "Good. Well, you'd best all be off home, then; we'll discuss this again tomorrow."

As the group broke up, Buffy gravitated towards the undead object of her affections and said, "Be *real* careful keeping an eye on those two and their minions?"

"I've been doing this sort of thing a long time, Buffy. So far, no one's killed me yet," Angel said with a small smile.

"Yeah, and I'd like to keep it that way. See you tomorrow, Angel!" Buffy gave him a sunny smile, before she kissed him goodbye and he vanished into the dark school hallway.

1630 Revello Drive Sunnydale, November 21st 1997

Ted showed up at the Summers' house with his drugged home-made pizzas and cookies. Joyce answered the doorbell, and was instantly happy to see him. "Come on in, Ted!"

Smiling, the Ted-bot came inside as Joyce closed the door. "Hello, everyone!" Ted smiled at the gathered Scooby gang, who were playing Clue at the dining table.

At Ted's urging, just about everyone started eating the drugged food. They were having a good time playing Clue, while chewing on the mini-pizza's that Ted had baked, when anyone who wasn't a robot (namely Ted, Willow and Oz) started getting affected by the drugs...

Moments later, Buffy excused herself and ran upstairs to the toilet. She came out of the bathroom and found Ted reading her diary/journal in her room. "What are you doing in my room?!" the blonde Slayer glared at him.

Ted carelessly tossed the journal onto the bed. "I came looking for you, you were gone a long time."

"And that gives you the right to read my diary?!"

"It was on the floor -"

"It was NOT! I keep it locked up!"

"Yes, with what you've written in there, I'm not surprised. Young lady, you have a lot of issues!" Ted gave her a rather menacing look. "Buffy, I'll see you downstairs. And I'll be discussing what you've written in there with your mother, don't think I won't!" He warned her and left her room.

{ What an asshole! } Buffy thought to herself angrily. She quickly went downstairs as well and, upon seeing the stares of her friends, shook her head and decided to play it cool.

Later that evening Cordy started acting strange, something which Xander found concerning. She was actually acting kinda… frisky. Smiling at him, nudging him in the side and batting her eyelashes at him. Xander took another bite of pizza, and while he normally would have gobbled it down straightaway - it now tasted weird for some reason, and he fought the urge to purge right in the middle of the dining room.

"Are you going to eat that pizza, Xander?" Cordy asked, smiling that toothpaste commercial smile of hers.

"Uh, no, go ahead and take it if you want..." Xander said, looking at the brunette oddly. For some reason, he'd never before thought of the cheerleader as someone you'd eat pizza with at a friend's house, during a school night. It made her more... human, for want of a better word.

Cordelia took the pizza from his hand and then swiftly ate it. "Thanks, dweeb."

{ Okay, now we're back to normal, } Xander thought to himself in relief upon hearing the insult. Despite that, though, he couldn't keep his eyes off Cordelia as she masticated her food. She noticed him doing so and giggled, leaning even closer to him, starting to whisper in his ear…

{ SWEET MAMALOOSHIN! } Xander thought to himself, recoiling away from Cordelia in shock. { I've *got* to be hearing things! She did *not* just invite me to make out with her in one of the school's utility closets, tomorrow morning! Did she? }

Later that night, at the blood bank near the back of Sunnydale General Hospital, Kendra was fighting four vampires attempting to steal the blood bag shipment out of the delivery truck. The vamps had already killed the delivery men, before she staked one of them in the chest. She roundhouse-kicked another in the head, who hit the ground before he also got dusted.

"Sorry, dudes, but I'm out of here!" a hippie vampire with long hair and red sunglasses shouted out. He made a run for it while Kendra killed the third vampire. She then ran after the hippie vamp, catching up with him and then slamming her fist in his face. Breaking the sunglasses, and his nose.

"Owww, my face!" the undead loser cried out. Kendra simply staked him in the chest like the others, and he exploded into dust.

{ Mr. Zabuto isn't going to believe this, after I send my report home. Hippie vampires, } Kendra thought to herself in disgust, before venturing inside the hospital to inform someone that the delivery truck had arrived, and then leaving to continue tonight's patrol.

Back at the Summers' house, Xander had had enough. "Guys, I'm taking Cordy home."

"Is something wrong?" Joyce asked in concern.

"Uh, no, Mrs. Summers. 'Course not! It's just – uh, Cordy needs an early night tonight. She has this thing tomorrow. Cheerleader practice," Xander ad-libbed desperately.

"Yeah, he's right. I've got some moves I need to practice, definitely," Cordy grinned, wrapping an arm around his neck and starting to freak Xander out big time.

Ted gave them some extra cookies for the road, silently hoping that the Dematorin-laced food would keep these two out of the way with regard to his plan for Joyce. "Here you go, kids. And good luck with practice tomorrow!" he said cheerfully, causing Buffy to scowl at him.

"Oh, thanks Ted," Xander said, taking the cookies before handing them over to Cordelia. She thanked him too, before Xander steered Cordy over to the front door with her arm now wrapped tightly around his waist. With a quick flurry of goodbyes, the two teens quickly exited the house and headed towards her car parked outside on the street.

"Are you okay?" Buffy whispered to Willow, reminded of the redhead's crush on Xander last year.

"Sure. I'm with Oz now," the Willow-bot nodded with a smile. "Don't worry about me, Buffy. You oughta worry about Xander, if Cordy has decided to sink her claws into him - for some insane-o reason!" she whispered back.

"Eww," Buffy made a face, before re-joining the conversation with the other people present.

Outside, Xander was briefly grateful that he had accepted a lift from Cordelia tonight, and that he didn't have to worry about coming back here for his own car, before he focused on more important matters. "Cordy, what's the matter with you? Are you *drunk* or something?" he demanded.

"Oh, don't sweat it. Everything's fine!" Cordelia giggled, before she put her arms around his neck and brought him closer. "More than fine, actually."

"Uh, Cordelia…" Xander started to say nervously.

"Calm down, dork! I don't bite. Well, not unless you want me to," Cordelia smiled suggestively, leaning forward.

"That's it! I'm taking you home right now," Xander pulled back, even more freaked out and trying to fight immense temptation as those very kissable lips came way too close to his. "Gimme your keys, Cor. You're in no shape to drive right now!"

"Spoilsport," Cordelia pouted, before reaching into her purse, handing over the car keys and settling into the passenger's seat as Xander started up the car and drove off in the direction of Parkview Crescent. { Stupid boy. Even if Xander *does* look sorta cute and attractive and stuff... }

Neither of them ever realized Drej had been spying on them, waiting for Ted to make his move so that the demon could carry out his orders from Jareth. Drej grinned in the shadows after overhearing the conversation between Xander and Cordelia, figuring it wouldn't be long now. Xander drove right past him, actually, but simply never noticed the demon in the shadows.

Which, for his sake, was just as well.

Back inside 1630 Revello Drive, Ted watched with secret glee as Willow, Oz, Buffy and Joyce continued eating the last of the mini-pizzas and cookies. { Any moment now… }

Right on cue, they all fell asleep at the same time and their heads hit the dinner table, knocking things down onto the floor. Well, apart from Willow and Oz – but the two robot spies had been given orders by Jareth to play along with the Ted-bot's plans, and gave a very convincing performance of being unconscious like the others.

"At last!" Ted went to the front door and opened up. Then he went back to get Joyce, carrying her out the house and putting her into the passenger seat of his car. Whistling a happy tune, Ted got into the driver's seat and quickly took off towards his house. He never noticed Drej following them, popping in and out of existence on the streets...

Elsewhere, Xander was still driving Cordy home, while she was nibbling on the cookies Ted had given them. { What's wrong with her? Cordy's getting crumbs all over the car, after she warned *me* not to make a mess earlier tonight! } "Cor? Cordelia? You okay?" Xander asked in concern, but needing to keep an eye on traffic.

Thus it took him a few seconds to realize she'd eaten the cookie and passed out in the passenger seat. The remaining cookie crumbs fell onto the floor of the car, ruining the detailing even more.

"Damn it," Xander cursed, slamming down on the brakes and pulling over. He started yelling in concern, "Cordelia? Wake up! Are you okay? CORDY!"

Elsewhere, Kendra arrived at Giles' place, intending to report to her substitute Watcher before calling Jamaica. Using the key he'd given her, she walked into the condo and closed the front door behind her. "Good evenin', Mr. Giles, I'm back."

"Excellent. How did the slaying go, Kendra?" Giles asked, as he got up to make them both a cup of tea.

"Not bad," the Caribbean girl shrugged. "Coulda been worse, I'm t'inking. Err, do ya mind if I use de telephone to report to Mr. Zabuto?"

Giles checked his watch. "Hmm, the time difference isn't too bad – yes, go ahead."

"Good." Kendra hesitated a moment and then said hesitantly, "Could I ask a personal question, Mr. Giles?"

"Yes, what is it?"

"Dat Xander boy – is he seeing anyone right now?" Kendra asked hopefully.


	15. Chapter 15

Ted Buchanan's residence Sunnydale, November 21st 1997

Ted used rope to tie Joyce to a chair, down in his hidden basement (or what the Scooby gang would have called his "bunker o' love"). He ripped off a piece of duct tape and put it on the Summers woman's mouth. "I'm sorry, pumpkin. But I can't have you screaming for help, now, can I? That always ruins everything…"

He smiles at Buffy's mom, not caring that she was out cold. "Oh, I hope you don't mind the smell down here. And I'll also have to take your cell phone. Annoying things, aren't they?" He took Joyce's cell before calmly walking up the stairs, and then the Ted-bot secured the trap door in the floor.

Whistling to itself, the robot figured that even if Joyce did somehow escape from being tied to the chair, it wouldn't matter. She had no chance of breaking out of the underground basement. Ted had no idea, though, that a demon had followed him to his house...

{ Not yet, not quite, } Drej thought to himself, keeping eye out for the Scooby gang to show up before heading in to reduce Ted to spare parts. { Almost time, though. Very soon now… }

Elsewhere, Xander took Cordy to the local hospital instead of taking her home, just in case. Luckily, the staff at Sunnydale General Hospital weren't too busy with 'wild animal attacks' and 'victims of gangs high on PCP' to help her. A nurse and an intern put Cordy on a gurney and rushed her out of the ER, while Xander called her parents on his cell phone.

"Hello, Chase residence," a calm, accented answered the landline phone.

"Hi, this is Xander Harris. I, uh, I need to speak with Cordy's parents, please," he said, stumbling slightly.

"May I ask what this is pertaining to?" the voice – probably the Chase family butler, now that Xander thought about it – replied in that calm and collected voice.

"Uh, Cordelia's in the hospital. Sunnydale General. She fell unconscious as I was driving her home," Xander semi-babbled.

"One moment, please." There was silence as he was put on hold, and then the line exploded back into life as a male voice shouted, "What's all this about my little girl ending up in the hospital?!"

Xander explained to Mr. Chase what had happened, and that he hoped that Cordelia was going to be okay, before the man hung up on him without warning. { Well, that could have gone better, } Harris thought to himself with a sigh, before he decided to find the waiting room and wait for Cordelia's parents to show up.

Back at Giles' home, earlier that night, both the Watcher and the Slayer drank their tea as Rupert wondered how to answer Kendra's question about Xander – diplomatically.

"Is Xander seeing anyone? Err, I don't – that is, I-I don't like to pry into other people's personal lives, Kendra. I just wish that, that Buffy wasn't dating a vampire," he sighed.

"Buffy is dating Angel?!" Kendra gave him a puzzled look. "And you permit dis, sir?"

"It's not, um, a matter of, of granting permission, it's more – well, I already know that even if I forbade Buffy to see Angel socially, she'd continue to do so in secret, with Willow's help," Giles confessed. "Since I'm not her parental guardian, and ah, since Buffy's mother remains ignorant of her Calling – well, I'm sure Mr. Zabuto has taught you the value of knowing which battles need to be fought and which ones don't, a-as it were."

"Dat is true," Kendra said musingly, before her mind focused back on Xander and whether it'd be worth getting to know him better. Her Watcher had never allowed her to so much as look at a boy her own age, unless he was a vampire and she had to slay him. { Still, everything is so different here… it's like the rules back home don't really apply. At least, I don't think they do! }

Back at 1630 Revello Drive, Buffy started to wake up from the effects of the drugged food – and instantly, she noticed that her mom was gone and the front door was wide open.

"Mom!" Buffy cried out as she ran out of the house. Only to see the family Jeep still parked in the driveway. It didn't take a rocket scientist to put two and two together and Buffy cursed, "Damn it! That asshole Ted drugged us!"

She went back inside to wake her friends up. "Willow! Oz!" She started shaking both of the robot spies. "Wake up!"

"Buffy?" the Willow-bot suddenly ceased playing possum, as did its so-called boyfriend. "Oz?"

"Feeling kinda funky, but yeah," the Oz-bot lied.

"Ted drugged us and kidnapped my mom!" Buffy told the two robots worriedly. "We gotta get her back!"

"Right. I'll call Xander," Oz replied, as takes out his cell phone and started punching buttons.

"There's no time! And besides, what's he going to do?!" Buffy demanded, her unfortunate choice of words indicating her true feelings about her male friend. "Your van's outside, we know Ted's address – so why the hell are we still here?"

"Because we need to tell at least one other person what's going on. Xander can call Giles and Kendra and they can come rescue us, if something goes wrong," Willow pointed out. "It's not smart to act unilaterally at times like this, Buff. I keep telling you that we're a team, that you don't have to do everything all by yourself with regards to the Slayage – I just wish you'd listen, for once..."

Buffy glared at her best friend (or the robot duplicate thereof), knowing Willow was right but not wanting to admit it – and so she turned her attention to Oz, impatiently waiting for the phone call to end.

At the hospital, Xander heard his cell go off with the Star Wars Imperial March ring tone, before he took the phone out of his jeans pocket. He already knew it was Oz, thanks to his belief that Willow's boyfriend was a good candidate for being a Jedi Master with his laid-back personality and his tendency to give short, monosyllabic replies to other people's questions – and so the ring tone reflected everything that the caller wasn't.

Hey, Xander already knew the group thought he was occasionally weird and strange...

"What is it, Oz-man?" Xander said simply into the cell phone.

"Ted's taken Buffy's mom. We're think kidnapping and hostage type scenario," said Oz on his end. He then told Xander to meet him, Willow and Buffy at Ted's house and call for backup of the Watcher variety.

"Will do calling the G-man and Kendra, but I can't leave Cor now – oh man, her folks just showed up, here at the hospital," Xander told him, spying Cordelia's parents not far away. "Get Will to call in the cavalry?"

"Understood," Oz replied. A moment later, they both disconnected.

"I told Xander where to meet us. But he's at the hospital with Cordelia, along with her parental units." Oz put his phone away. "Guy said we ought to contact Giles and Kendra ourselves." He handed over the cell to his girlfriend, who then proceeded to do so.

"Let's GO!" Buffy demanded, finally losing all semblance of patience. Wasting no time, they took off in Oz's van and drove towards Ted's house.

Back at the hospital, Xander greeted Cordelia's parents. "Mr. Chase, Mrs. Chase. I called you earlier about Cordy?"

Cordelia's father squinted at him. "Wait a minute – aren't you Tony's boy? Haven't seen you since Cordelia's tenth birthday party!"

Xander frowned. "You know my dad, sir?"

"They went to school together, just like most of our generation did. Sunnydale isn't that big a town, you see," Mrs. Chase replied coolly.

"Never mind that – dammit, boy, tell me what happened to Cordelia!" Mr. Chase demanded angrily.

Xander simply repeated the story he had told them before on the phone, playing dumb before the Chase elders went to check on Cordelia in her room. He followed them, waiting outside as they examined their daughter. After Mr. and Mrs. Chase came out, saying they wanted to speak to a doctor, he accompanied them back to the hospital lobby - before ditching the older pair, after getting an idea.

A short while later, Cordelia was finally awake in her room. She felt pretty horrible as Xander walked into the hospital room with flowers and a teddy bear, but instantly she felt better as she smiled at him. "You don't have to get me flowers or even a teddy bear, dork," she thanked him in her own Cordelia-esque way.

He placed them on the cabinet on the side of the hospital bed. "I know that, Cor. But I was worried when you passed out in the passenger seat, after eating those drugged pizzas and cookies."

"WHAT?!" Cordelia instantly looked mad as Xander explained what must have happened, briefly mentioning the rushed phone call from Oz. "That bastard drugged us, Xander. Let's go kick his ass!" Cordy wanted nothing more than to break both of Ted's knees with a baseball bat, at that moment.

"No way, Cordy, you're not going anywhere until the doctors say you're allowed out of that bed." He smirked at her. "Besides, your mom and dad are here, I called 'em after bringing you straight to the ER. You wanna explain to them why you wanna leave here and break some guy's kneecaps, good luck with that!"

Cordelia rolled her eyes at him. She opened her mouth to deliver a scathing reply, before a look of horror appeared on her face. "Oh my God..."

"What?"

"Did I...did I actually invite you to make out with me tomorrow morning? In the school janitor's closet?!" Cordelia now looked officially freaked, as she remembered that part of the evening.

"Coulda been worse; it might have been underneath the bleachers at the football field, where anybody could see us," Xander wisecracked, before he saw the upset look on her face. "Relax, Cor; you were totally under the influence when you made that offer, so I'm absolutely not expecting you to kiss me tomorrow morning. And since no one heard you whisper that in my ear, it'll just be our little secret for the rest of our lives – okay?"

"Okay," she agreed, wondering why the heck she was feeling somewhat regretful that Xander hadn't said something like, 'you promised to kiss me tomorrow, so now you gotta keep your word about that!' instead.

{ I officially hate that Ted Buchanan guy, } Cordy thought grumpily, as Xander grabbed an empty vase and filled it from a nearby basin faucet, before placing the flowers he'd bought her in the water. { I swear, I'm telling Daddy to get that asshole arrested – and not just for drugging me and the others tonight, but for messing up what should have happened between me and – no! I did NOT just think that! } she cogitated in sudden horror. { I am *not* attracted to that fashion-victim doofus, of all people! I'm NOT! }

Outside Ted's home, Drej sensed that the Scooby gang was coming to the rescue. So his eyes glowed red, and the demon put his plan into gear.

Not far away, the van containing Buffy, Willow, and Oz developed a flat tire, and screeched to a halt. At the hospital, Cordelia fell asleep – as did Xander. Elsewhere, Giles and Kendra looked at each other in confusion, suddenly unable to remember why they were rushing to the Watcher's car. Drej's eyes then stopped glowing red. He grinned and said to himself, "Now that those fools are all out of the way, time I got those robot parts!"

He didn't want to waste any more time on this assignment, after all. So the demon vanished and then appeared in Ted's living room. Ted was watching something on TV on the couch. He had no idea that someone was behind him, until –

"Hello, Ted!" Drej said in his demonic voice.

"What the hell?" Ted got up from the couch and saw a young man that looked to be in his mid-twenties. The unexpected visitor was wearing a black hoodie, black pants and black boots, and he also had short black hair. In anything, he looked like a Goth. "How did you get in here?" Ted gave his unwelcome guest a death glare.

"Come on, robot, you've been around long enough to know about the things that go bump in the night! And I didn't come here to save Joyce Summers, if that's what you were wondering; I came for your parts, Teddy-boy." So saying, Drej jump-kicked his opponent in the chest, sending him right into the TV set!

Down in the hidden bunker that looked like an apartment straight out of the 1950's, Joyce woke up from all the noise upstairs. She quickly determined that she wasn't within her own home, but someone else's place - and tied to a chair. She tried to get loose, but failed to do so. She couldn't even call for help; her mouth had duct tape all over it.

Unfortunately, her nose was still working, and Joyce could smell something rotten coming from the nearby storage closet. She had enough experience working at her art gallery to guess what that something might be, unfortunately. { HELP! HELP! }

Upstairs, Ted wasn't happy with the new guy and picked up a chair, throwing it at Drej. The demon slashed at the chair while it was in mid-air, destroying it effortlessly with his mind powers. "Well, that's just not on. Mister, I won't stand for that sort of malarkey in MY house!" the Ted-bot growled.

Scowling, Ted jumped over the couch and attacked his enemy, punching Drej in the face - which broke his hand, sparks and the smell of burning oil erupting from the now-useless appendage. Smiling, Drej reached forward and ripped Ted's right arm off with his bare hand. There was a flash of light, metal and loose wires coming out where the insane robot's arm used to be.

"I'll kill you!" His programming becoming entirely corrupted, Ted came at Drej with everything he had left. But the attack failed miserably, as the demon vanished and reappeared behind the robot, ripping off the head with his hands. Sparks flew out of the bare neck, as various systems crashed and shorted themselves out.

Ted's lifeless body hit the nearly coffee table in the living room, which broke roughly in half. Drej just grinned to himself, "Now that was kinda fun…"

Down in the basement bunker, Joyce rocked the chair she was tied to back and forward - until the chair tipped over, hitting the ground. Luckily the chair was pretty old, which meant it broke pretty easily. She quickly freed herself of the rope and the duct tape, before screaming her lungs out. "HELP! HELP!" She could see the extension ladder leading up to the ceiling, but there was nothing in the room she could use to reach up that high. "HELP!"

Over at the old mansion on Crawford Street, Spike found Dru in the garden watching the stars in the night sky. "Whatcha doin', luv?"

She turned around with an evil smile. "Spoike, please, let's have a party; let's build a Judge!" Drusilla grinned at him.

{ The Judge? } Spike blew smoke from his mouth, before putting out the cigarette with his boot. Thinking over the legend, he mused to himself, { Well, why not? It's not the Gem of Amara, but it'll do in other ways… } "Great idea, luv. Okay, first, we need ta replace the minions that were dusted with new ones." He wrapped his arm around Dru, who giggled. "But then, we'll see what we can do to bring forth Big Blue, and burn the righteous down..."

Count Orlok had overheard them, and started wondering where to find a warlock or a witch that could use magic powerful enough to repair the Gem of Amara. If that could be done. The former Billy Fordham didn't fancy being judged and found unworthy...

So he left the old mansion without a word, putting his plan into action.

Back in Ted's basement, Joyce looked around for a way to escape but found none. Her cell phone was missing, so that was not an option. Plus the smell from the storage closet was getting really awful. Knowing she'd regret this, Joyce walked towards the storage closet and opened it - really, really slowly.

Without warning, the dead bodies of Ted's previous four victims came bursting out, falling at her feet.

She almost hurled, but covered her mouth with her hands just in time. Joyce took several steps back, almost fainting from the horror – as she suddenly realized what her unknown kidnapper most likely intended, after bringing her here.

Upstairs, Drej summoned a briefcase from out of nowhere before opening it. There was nothing inside; just darkness, an endless void. The demon casually put Ted's right arm in first, and then the head. Ripping off Ted's other limbs, they went in next along with the main trunk, before Drej closed the briefcase. With a wave of his hand, the case was locked. He then picked up the case, with the expression of a job well done on his human-looking face.

Heading to the kitchen, Drej began looking for something to eat before Jareth met him here. Drej spotted Joyce's cell phone on the kitchen table, but he paid no attention to that. The demon didn't find anything edible, but that wasn't surprising; now that Ted had gotten what he wanted, he'd been planning to vanish off the grid for a while and had no more need for human appearances.

Jareth appeared in the kitchen. "Making yourself at home, Drej?" Jareth raised his eyebrow at him.

"Why not? The job's done," the demon laughed. "The robot is in the briefcase." Drej pointed to it on the kitchen table.

Jareth picked up the case off the kitchen table and smiled. Both of them vanished, taking Ted with them. A short while later, the Scooby gang (or at least, Buffy and the Willow-bot and the Oz-bot) finally arrived on the scene – only to find the Sunnydale cops crawling all over the house.

"Detective Stein, that's a trap door right there!" one of the uniform officers exclaimed, as the balding detective shoved the carpet to one side. "I think there's someone down there, I can hear -"

"Outta the way," Detective Stein said roughly, before blasting the lock with his gun and then lowering the extension ladder after opening the trap door. "HELLO? Is someone -"

"Oh, thank God you've come! I was kidnapped!" Joyce shouted, as she almost ran up the ladder.

"MOM!" Buffy burst into the house, followed by Willow and Oz. "Oh, thank God you're okay! Where is that Ted guy? I swear, I'm gonna -"

"Ma'am, you say you were kidnapped?" Stein interrupted, gesturing at someone to start taking notes.

"Yes, I – I woke up down there, I didn't know what was going on…" Joyce trailed off.

"We got a report earlier tonight that a Miss Cordelia Chase had been drugged after having dinner at 1630 Revello Drive," Stein told her. "Does that mean anything to you?"

"Yes, that's my house, I – my daughter brought her friends over for dinner tonight, including that Cordelia girl! My boyfriend, Ted Buchanan – he brought the food – wait, this is Ted's house! Are you saying – those four dead bodies down there-?" She pointed down towards the basement, with a fresh look for horror on her face.

Stein gestured to his fellow police officers to check out the underground bunker. "Secure the crime scene until I get down there, looks like we've got a serial killer on our hands!"

An APB was put out, but Ted was nowhere to be found. The morgue people came and went, taking away the dead in body bags as Joyce was given a blanket and a steaming cup of coffee to recover from her ordeal. Stein took statements from both Willow and Oz, before ordering the two teens to go home and keep an eye out for Ted (just in case).

"Glad that nightmare's over," Buffy said, as she hugged her mom and gave thanks that she and her friends had arrived here in time. { Still, I wonder – where exactly did Ted disappear off to? }

Elsewhere at DELOS, Jareth laughed in delight…


	16. Chapter 16

Sunnydale High School Quad, Sunnydale, November 22nd 1997

Harmony Kendall was not having a good day.

It was late afternoon now, and earlier today she'd heard that the dweeb, Xander Harris, had taken her best friend Cordelia Chase to the hospital last night. And sure, great that the dork had actually proven useful for once, but – Cordelia had been hanging out a lot at the library lately, with Harris and his loser friends. Especially that *freak*, Buffy Summers!

Harmony scowled to herself. { My best friend has been infected with loser-dom. My ex-boyfriend broke up with me, just because I wouldn't put out for him. What an asshole! Urgh. Well, he was no great loss, I guess, but...it's just been one thing after another lately! Like, I can't believe Buffy led Cordelia astray like that! Now that I think about it… } "I wish Buffy Summers never came to Sunnydale!" she yelled out, once she was sure there was no one around to hear her rant.

A vengeance demon named Anyanka appeared. Her vein-y, demonic face was twisted into a scowl. "You're lucky I'm behind in my monthly quota, little girl! Plus there's the fact that Anyanka has never failed D'Hoffryn before, and never will, so... okay. Wish granted," Anya spat at her, before Harmony could say a word.

There was a brief flash of white light, and suddenly, pretty much everything that had been - was no longer.

Sunnydale High School Quad, Alternate Universe Sunnydale, November 22nd 1997

Harmony blinked. She was no longer at Sunnydale High, but a much darker version of the school. Or so it appeared to her eyes, anyway. The main building of the school was run down and falling apart, whereas a moment before – it had been just fine...

"What the hell was that?!" Harmony demanded, sure that she'd been seeing things just now with regards to that vein-y faced *thing* that had appeared out of nowhere. She looks around, but saw no one at all. The school looked completely abandoned, with rubbish-strewn grounds and its dead trees and broken benches. Even the grass nearby looked dead, lifeless.

Stunned, Harmony went inside the school building, wondering what the heck had happened. But there was no one there – not even Principal Snyder! The blonde Cordette lost all track of time looking for someone to explain what had happened, and by the time she came out of the building, sunset had arrived. { Why is it night all of a sudden? }

The next moment, Harmony heard voices behind her.

"Look what we have here, boys, fresh blood!" A... *thing* with yellow eyes and a bumpy forehead and dressed as a leather-clad biker said to its friends, who were all dressed the same way.

"Back off, you, you freaks!" Harmony warned them, trying to be brave. Acting instinctively, she took some pepper spray from her bag and sprayed the three gang members in the eyes, before making a run for it!

They ran after her, of course, cursing and shouting. But then, she ran straight into the weirdo squad! Piling out of a zebra-striped van, the... hunters fired wooden arrows at the pseudo-bikers. And weird as all get out, but all of the bad guys exploded into dust!

{ This cannot be happening, } Harmony thought firmly to herself. { It's got to be a nightmare! } She pinched herself, but that didn't help. Then she noticed one of the weirdos was Oz!

{ Of all the people to save me from the monsters, it had to be him, } Harmony sighed to herself. Oz had been cool before he'd started dating that *nerd*, Rosenberg! "What's going on, Oz? Who were those guys? And what happened to the school?" She gestured behind her.

"Harmony, I swear, it's a miracle you're still alive," Oz (the real one, not an Oz-bot) shook his head at her. "Get inside the van, I'll take you home -"

"Hey, stop treating me like an idiot! Just because I'm not the smartest girl in school like Rosenberg, or the most popular one like Cordelia -" Harmony started to yell.

"Willow Rosenberg? And Cordelia Chase?" Oz interrupted, his eyes narrowing.

"Yeah, like, your girlfriend? And my best friend?" Harmony said sarcastically. "I mean it, Oz, what's going on? Has the entire world suddenly gone crazy?"

Oz simply grabbed her and bundled her into the van, before it roared off and away from Sunnydale High. The driver headed for the apartment of Rupert Giles, as Oz started questioning Harmony; and in between his questions, the blonde started to get an idea of what had happened since Buffy never came to Sunnydale.

Not that Harmony believed any of it, of course...

Meanwhile, at the Bronze, Angel was brought before the Master by the undead versions of Xander and Willow, along with two other minion vampires. "The traitor as requested, boss!" Vamp Xander announced, as he shoved Angel to the ground at his sire's feet.

"Very good, Xander." The Master then grinned evilly at Angel. "Well, Angelus. I hope you've enjoyed my hospitality so far?"

"Room service leaves something to be desired," Angel gasped out, the bruises and burn marks courtesy of Vamp Willow clearly visible on his chest.

"Come, come, you've coped with worse! Now, I'm only going to give you one chance to join me, Angelus, to swear allegiance to me and me alone. So, what's it going to be?" the Mater demanded.

Angel laughed in a broken and twisted way. "You're going to kill me whatever I say, *Grandpa*. So I may as well get my fun where I can find it, and say I'll never join the likes of you."

"Very well, then, take him away. But don't kill him yet," the Master said with a wave of his hand, a slight smirk visible on his demonic face. Immediately, two minions grabbed Angel by the arms and took him down to the basement holding cells.

The vampire named Luke walked up to the Master and bowed. "Master, what about the Slayer? She might still come to Sunnydale, as was foretold by the prophecy in the Pergamum Codex."

"Hmmm…yes. Send Spike and Drusilla to deal with her." The Master chuckled wickedly. "Willow, Xander, you have my leave to have some more fun with your 'toy'. But as I said, don't kill Angelus yet." He smiled ferally. "Or I'll have you both kissing daylight in his place."

"As you wish, Master," Vamp Willow replied. Both she and Vamp Xander bowed, before taking their leave.

A quick phone call to the other side of the country had both Spike and Dru travel by car to Cleveland to hunt down Buffy Summers. Their orders were to kill her before she ever came to Sunnydale – if they could. Personally, the Master suspected the two upstarts would fail, as the prophecy foretold that he himself would kill the Chosen One – but he'd been around long enough to know that prophecies didn't tell you everything...

A few moments later, the vampire hunters, Oz and Harmony entered the Watcher's apartment. Looking up over the top of a book, Cordelia was glad to see Harmony safe and well. "Harmony, you're alright!" She quickly rushed over and hugged her friend tightly.

"Why shouldn't I be, Cordelia?" Harmony had a puzzled look on her face, as the brunette let go and stepped back. "I mean, Oz was asking me all these questions after he and his friends saved me from those...gang members, or whoever they were, but... I don't get it, what's going on?"

Giles looked up from his work. "You probably don't want to know, Miss Kendall." Oz's friends excused themselves, saying they needed to go home to their families, but the werewolf chose to stay behind. Giles then looked over at Oz and said, "Why did you bring the girl here, instead of taking her home?"

"That's a long story, but apparently, she made a wish and changed the world," Oz shrugged.

"What?" both Giles and Cordelia said at the same time.

Mr. Giles! What's going on here?" Harmony demanded, starting to get frightened all over again and appealing to the adult authority figure.

Giles sighed and cleaned his glasses, before giving her the standard 'this world is older than you know' speech – and then adding a few extra bits of information. Namely –

"The Slayer?" Giles exclaimed, his eyes going wide. He listened as Oz talked, and then turned his attention back to Harmony. "You mean – Miss Summers *was* here, but then you wished she'd never come to town, a-and – history was altered, as it were, to accommodate your wish?"

"That's crazy!" Harmony exclaimed vehemently. "You know what, I don't believe any of this! Vampires, wishes, I mean – are you people even listening to yourselves? Do you have any idea how nuts you sound? This has *got* to be nothing but a nightmare!"

"Harmony. Shut up and listen, *very* carefully," Cordelia semi-growled at her. "This is *not* a nightmare. It's real, comprendez? So you are going to tell us everything that's happened to you, understand? Now, did you wish that this Buffy girl never came to Sunnydale, or not?"

"Yeah, okay, fine, so I did. But you can't blame me for that – I mean, you've been hanging around her and her tweako friends lately! Especially that dweeb, Xander -"

"Xander Harris?" Cordelia interrupted, a look of fear appearing on her face.

"Is there any other Xander we know? Anyway, there I was minding my own business, when this ugly-looking woman appears. Oh, I think she said her name was Anyanka…" Harmony started to say.

Over at the Master's lair, Vamp Xander and Vamp Willow were torturing the hell out of Angel. Angel was chained to a torture table as the two soulless creatures laughed at his pain. Vamp Xander poured some holy water onto the captive's naked chest, as Angel's skin burned and bubbled.

"Aw, puppy. We mostly tie traitors like you to a pole. So when the sun rises, you burn *slowly*," Vamp Willow grinned evilly at Angel. "It's too bad the Master wants to keep you around, we can't play *properly*..."

Vamp Willow wrapped her arms around her undead boyfriend. Throughout his torture, Angel never once screamed out in pain; which made her want to break him all the more...

Back at the Watcher's apartment, Giles finally managed to get the full story out of Harmony, hearing all about the world she'd come from. He gaped in astonishment at some parts of it, as did Oz and Cordelia, but eventually came to his senses and started looking up stuff in his books.

"So what's the plan? We undo this Wish thing Harmony did?" Oz demanded, shooting the blonde an unfriendly look.

"Uh, that – that is an option, I-I suppose. But summoning a demon – especially one of D'Hoffryn's lot, I've heard of him – well, I-I'd rather we keep that as a plan of last resort," Giles shook his head. "Not only could we all get killed, history might be changed again; only this time, into something even *worse* than our current situation."

"So what do we do?" Cordelia wanted to know, looking at Harmony uncertainly.

"I'm going to look up a ritual to return Miss Kendall back to her world." He then went to his bookshelf and found something on Eyrishon, the Endless One. "The ritual will take a few days to get ready," Giles told Harmony. "But as soon as I get all the components, we can – hopefully – send you home."

"Oh. Well, good! But what am I supposed to do in the meantime, Mr. Giles?" she asked him.

"I don't know. Help us survive, I suppose. So don't go out alone at night. But be careful during the day as well; there are demons wandering around, they show up and attack from time to time," Giles warned her.

"So I'm confined to the barracks from now on? Great!" Harmony sighed theatrically.

Cordelia couldn't blame her. Then she thought to herself, { Hang on, if *this* Harmony goes through some mystical portal or whatever, what's that mean for *my* Harmony? }

"I'll try to contact Miss Summers via her Watcher and ask her to come here, help us out," Giles went over to his phone and tries to reach Buffy or her people.

"What's wrong?" Harmony asked, seeing Cordelia's face.

"I just figured it out. My Harmony is gone, you've taken her place," Cordy replied miserably. "And once you've gone home, she'll cease to exist here, right?"

"Um, I don't know. So, so is it true that, uh, both Xander and Willow are vampires here?" the blonde asked Cordy nervously, wanting to change the subject.

"Yes it's true, Harm," Cordelia sighed heavily. "And just so you know, I've had nightmares about them killing me – or even worse, turning me into one of *them*."

"Um...why? I mean -"

"Because as a vampire, Willow doesn't like competition – and as a vampire, Xander still wants the same thing he did as a human," Cordy explained, with a look of anger and fear on her face.

Harmony's eyes almost bulged out of her head. "Are you saying that you and the doofus actually-?"

"Yes. Until he ended up one of the monsters, anyway."

City limits, Alternate Universe Cleveland, November 23rd 1997

That night, Dru and Spike arrived in Cleveland in their car. They got out of the parked car and began their hunt for Buffy.

A few hours later Buffy was fighting Ethan Rayne, a former friend of Rupert Giles. Oddly enough, in this dimension, he'd become a demon – due to a chaos spell gone wrong, which in turn was thanks to Buffy and the local agents sent by the Watchers' Council.

She'd been tracking down the demon version of Ethan, who had been stealing souls from people in order to summon a hellgod, and she'd finally found him in a cemetery – at last!

"Slayer, I will bury you here," Demon Ethan chuckled.

Buffy rolled her eyes and said, "I hear that a lot, Ethan."

The demon grinned at her. "With the souls I've collected, once I put the souls in the dead that are buried here? I will be able to summon a living god!" He laughed in darkish glee.

She saw a glowing jewel that was burned right into the palm of Demon Ethan's hand. { So that's how he's taking souls, huh? With that jewel thing. } She fired off a wooden bolt from her crossbow. The crossbolt was so quick it hit the glowing jewel, shattering into pieces. The souls were thus set free to move on to their final destination.

"What have you done, Slayer?!" Demon Ethan's right hand glowed then exploded; sending flesh, bone and blood everywhere. He yelled in pain, "You'll die for this!" He ran at her, but she got out of the way – smirking, as she fired another crossbolt into the demon's back.

Demon Ethan stopped in mid-charge, turning his head to the Slayer. He wasn't too happy with being injured by the Chosen One, not to mention the loss of his hand. "I may have lost this round, Slayer, but I'll be back!" He was just about to cast an teleportation spell, but -

"No you won't, Ethan!" Buffy told him, as she threw a dagger; which hit his neck. The chaos mage fell to the ground, choking and bleeding out. The demon that used to Ethan Rayne then died.

"Buffy, finally, I found you!" a Council agent exclaimed, showing up behind her.

She turned to face the Watcher. "Hey, Jack. What brings you here?"

"Ah, just checking – making sure no new vampires rise, and all that. Oh, and you got a call from the West Coast, Buffy. It's Rupert Giles. Sounds like Sunnydale really needs your help."

Buffy sighed. { Good thing I don't attend high school anymore, if I'm heading back there. } "Fine, I'll go. But I'll need backup." She wasn't really looking forward to going to the other Hellmouth in order to slay vampires there. California still held too many bad memories for her. Including the undead bitch that used to her mother, before she'd been slain.

Backup? Yes, we can arrange that, I suppose." Jack had more to tell her and said, "I've gotten reports of two vampires who have just come to Cleveland. They're called Spike and Drusilla, former members of the Whirlwind. They work for the Master, Heinrich Nest." He handed her files on the vampires. "The odds are they're after you, so, err…"

"Tell everybody to watch their backs with these two vamps. And Jack, don't get turned. I *will* stake you myself, if you do." Buffy smiled at him.

"Oh, err, thank you for that, I guess." The Watcher and Buffy then left the cemetery, going their separate ways.

Elsewhere Spike and Dru were walking down an alleyway, when they found some homeless people to feed on. "Well. Guess this will have to do for now, luv..." Spike shrugged. He didn't really enjoy drinking blood from a homeless person, the drugs and low-quality alcohol and disease just *ruined* the taste.

Drusilla sighed and then vamped out, digging her fangs into the neck of one of flesh bags. Spike also vamped out and did the same. They fed, before they ran into the Council agents while leaving the alleyway.

"Freeze, blood suckers!" said one of the hit team, raising a cross and stake.

"More humans to feed on, Spike!" Dru giggled evilly. Her game face reappeared, and so the Council people fired their guns. The bullets were made from melted sliver crosses; recently, someone in R&D here in America had decided to try them out instead of the normal ammunition, which did nothing but briefly hurt the undead.

The bullets hit Dru in the chest. The bullets instantly started to hurt her. "Oooh, Spike, it burns – IT BURNS!" she screamed in pain.

"God damn it!" Spike grabbed Dru in his arms and took off at inhuman speed.

"Sh it, they got away!" one of the Council agents exclaimed.

"Don't worry about it. They'll have a hard time digging out those bullets from her chest," said the head of the Council hit team. "The Slayer will finish them off. We've got some werewolves to find before we join her." The agents went back to their cars and then headed off towards the local werewolf den; their next order of business was to send a message that it was a *bad* idea to ally yourself with the monsters, lycanthrope or not.

Later that night, Spike had removed the blessed bullets from Dru's chest. He was wearing gloves to be on the safe side, and Dru was laying on a broken down bed that was falling apart. He gave her some blood bags to help her heal faster. "Don't move, luv; just drink up," he told her gently.

{ I'll make them effin' white hats pay for this! } He kissed her forehead lovingly. There were other vampires present in this building, it was a vampire nest; but that didn't concern Spike.

What *should* have concerned him was that Buffy had found them here in this no-longer-unknown hideout. The Slayer, and the Council agents with her burst in, slaying the undead without mercy. Spike heard gunshots, and death screams from both humans and vampires.

The vamps didn't take all this lying down, of course; they attacked their enemies, bleeding them dry where they could. But numbers and weapons were against them tonight; the vampires were hurt *badly* by the blessed bullets, the heat incapacitating them – which allowed the Council hit team and Buffy to stake or decapitate them relatively easily.

Buffy made her way to Spike's room, kicking down the broken door. She grinned at him viciously. Both of them faced off in the living room. "Hello, Billy Idol."

"Oi, don't you compare me to him! Bloody thief copycat..."

While Spike was busy with Buffy, Jack came into the room. Seeing his target, he pulled out a stake and then dusted Drusilla, who was too weak to get up and escape. She just screamed out, "Spike!" before exploding into dust.

"Dru!" Enraged into a frenzy, Spike grabbed Buffy by the arm and slammed her to the side of the room. Buffy quickly jumped to her feet and returned the favor, slamming Spike to the wall.

"Gonna kill you DEAD, Slayer!" Spike laughed viciously. But then Spike's eyes turned to the git that had killed his sire. "You're dead too, wanker!" He pushed Buffy away from him, heading straight towards the Watcher.

"Jack, get out of here!" Buffy yelled. But it was too late...

Just as Spike plunged his fist into Jack's face and out of the back of head, the Watcher fired his gun at Spike's face. Hitting his left eye, and destroying it. The mortal then dropped dead as Spike screamed in pain, the blessed silver bullet causing him great agony.

It *should* have been easy for Buffy to stake the soulless vampire at that moment, but somehow, ignoring the pain of Drusilla's death and his lost eye, Spike grabbed the dead Watcher and threw him at Buffy. Caught mid-leap, Buffy hit the floor hard with the dead body on top of her.

Blood was coming out of Spike's eye. "I'll be seeing you again, Slayer. In Sunnydale!" He jumped through the boarded-up window, landing on his feet and escaping into the night…

Kendall family residence, Alternate Universe Sunnydale, November 24th 1997

That morning, Harmony left her home with Cordy and Oz and the other vampire hunters. She'd needed her own things as she'd had nothing but the clothes on her back since showing up in the Wish world, after all. The group headed back towards Giles's apartment with a sigh of relief – so far, no demons had attacked them.

There was no one outside the van, just them. Sunnydale was like a ghost town today. But of course, their luck couldn't hold out forever – and as they all got out of the van, an evil demon showed up!

The demon expelled flaming balls from his mouth. The balls of fire hit Oz's friends, killing them as they burst into flames and were burned alive. Oz threw some holy water at the demon, and luckily it burned his face. The vampire hunters then exploded into ashes...

Amy came out of the apartment and cast a spell at the demon. "Hecate, before thee, let the unclean thing crawl!"

The demon turned into a rat. Harmony was in shock and awe of seeing Amy use magic, and almost missed the rat running away and vanishing into the nearby sewers.

"Oz, you okay?" Cordelia asked in concern, as the werewolf stared at where his friends had been killed just now.

"No. Give me a moment," Oz said mechanically, and no one said a word. Apparently realizing the danger of staying out in the open, Oz then said, "Everyone inside."

Oz, Cordy, Amy and Harmony then walked hurriedly towards the Watcher's apartment. "That was just – I, I had no idea that you're a, a witch, Amy…" Harmony semi-stuttered, still in awe of what she'd just seen. As well as stunned by the horrific murders she'd just witnessed.

"Needed to do something since things *seriously* went downhill, after the vampires and demons took over Sunnydale. Don't like to brag, but I've been busy learning powerful magic," Amy smiled.

Cordy sighed. Oz didn't say anything. They entered the apartment, just as Giles hung up the phone. "I have good news, everyone. Miss Summers is coming to Sunnydale with some err, backup," the Watcher beamed.

"That's great and all, Mr. Giles, but when am I going back home?!" Harmony tried not to whine, but didn't succeed very well.

"Soon, Miss Kendall. I've found some things that will help with the, uh, ritual," Giles told her.

"I'll help you with the ritual, Giles," Amy offered.

Harmony didn't say anything, she was just glad to be going back home soon. This so-called Wish world was proving to be a *major* bummer!

Oz didn't say a word either. The wolf within him was howling for blood, and for the first time, he didn't want to resist transforming into the beast and going out on a killing spree...

Maybe after Harmony was gone, though. The ditz's alien presence was enough to make him focus on the big picture – for now.


	17. Chapter 17

Alternate Universe Cleveland, November 23rd 1997

Spike had just escaped the battleground, as Buffy pushed her Watcher's body off of her. She picked up Jack's gun and went to the broken, boarded-up window. To her annoyance, Spike was nowhere in sight.

"Damn it! Well, at least I know where Billy Idol junior is going..." Buffy sighed to herself.

Not far away, Spike got into the parked DeSoto that had brought him and Drusilla to this city, not so long ago. "Bloody hell!" He slammed the driver side door closed, infuriated. Starting up the engine, the one-eyed vampire took off into the night, wiping away the blood in annoyance.

Buffy left the old building with the Council agents, who by this time had cleared out the vampire nest. "Guys?"

"Mission accomplished, ma'am. Where are you headed now, Miss Summers?" asked one of the hit team.

"I'm going to go get my things, pack for the trip to California," she told him simply. "Jack's dead, by the way – so, can you make the arrangements to have his remains sent back to England for burial?"

Nodding, the head agent then told her that everyone would soon be ready for her trip to Sunnydale…

Giles residence, Alternate Universe Sunnydale, November 24th 1997

Giles, Oz and the others were still making plans on how to deal with the Master (and send Harmony home), when Buffy and her entourage arrived at the Watcher's residence.

The reactions to this were somewhat varied; for example, Harmony wasn't too happy to meet this version of Buffy Summers. Oz figured he would be glad when this was all over, more or less. Cordelia just knew she would miss this version of Harmony, when she returned to her own world; not holding out any hope for the reappearance of the Wish-verse Harmony. Amy was just glad that she'd been able to find the last thing that she and Giles needed for the ritual, before the Slayer and her backup had arrived.

"So, have ever you done this before?" Harmony asked Amy, hoping that the nightmare of the last two days would soon be over.

"Sending someone to another world? Nope. It'll be my first time," she smiled.

"Yeah, uh, what exactly are you guys talking about? I thought you people needed help with a vampire problem," Buffy frowned.

Cordelia beckoned her over. "We do, but it's not that simple. Listen up..." The brunette then started to explain everything to the Slayer.

Elsewhere, within a holding cell in the Bronze's basement, Angel lay on his side on the ground. He wanted nothing more than to kill the Master himself. Oh, and the Willow and Xander vampires as well, of course. { Not damn likely at this point, though. }

Not far away, the Master was holding court, sitting on his throne chair. Luke walked up to him and said, "My sire. It is my duty to report Drusilla has been slain, and Spike is on his way to Sunnydale."

"And the Slayer, Luke?" the Master demanded, knowing that one of them would be killed.

"She still lives, Master."

"I see. Luke, inform me when she arrives into my domain." The Master smirked for a moment. "And I need to know when Spike arrives as well – inform me of that immediately, when it happens."

The minion nodded. "What about the white hats' pet witch, Master?" Luke asked him.

"Find her and kill her, Luke." The Master laughed, watching the Xander and Willow vampires feeding on some human slaves. Then Vamp Willow started to ride one like a pony...

Elsewhere, Spike had picked up some blood bags to feed from. He had placed an eye patch over his wounded eye as well. { Hope the Master won't be too annoyed with me. But then again, that putrid-looking wanker *does* have a low tolerance for failure, and no ruddy sense of humor! } He lit a cigarette, put it in his mouth then got back on the road, thanking all the dark gods out there he'd been able to sun-proof the windows with dark grease and paint. { Won't rest until I kill that Slayer fer you, Dru. Count on that, luv! }

At Giles's home, Buffy finished listening to Cordelia's story. She couldn't and didn't believe it, of course, but her imagination betrayed her – what if it was true? A world where she hadn't slain not just her undead mom, but her dad as well...

It had been back when she'd first found out she was the Slayer, her dad had been turned some years ago. Then Joyce had gotten vamped after they'd moved to Cleveland. She'd dusted them both, and good riddance to them.

And yet – what if it hadn't happened that way? If this Harmony person wasn't completely insane, then in another world – her mother was still alive. Maybe even her dad, too. What would Hank Summers be like, there? { Damn that girl for not knowing! It's enough to drive a Slayer nuts... }

By this point, Giles and Amy had finished setting up the ritual to send Harmony home. "You think this will work, Giles?" Cordelia asked.

"Err, I'm as sure as I can be. Where's Miss Kendall?" the Watcher asked absently.

"Upstairs, Oz went to get her," Cordelia shrugged. "Can you believe that the blond ditz was bored, and wanted to go outside for a walk? I swear, it's almost like she's trying to get herself killed!"

"She still can't accept the fact that the world she used to live in is gone, that it's no longer safe to walk the streets," Amy shrugged. "Not deep down where it matters, anyway. You have a point, though; Harmony's going to end up a statistic, if this doesn't work and she's trapped here along with the rest of us!"

Back at the Bronze's holding cells, two human slaves had somehow escaped their confinement. Their names were Warren Mears and Jesse McNally; curious historical sidebar, but Jesse was still alive here in the Wish world.

"You think the vampires are still asleep, Warren?" Jesse asked him. He didn't want to run into his former friends, Xander and Willow.

Warren rolled his eyes and hissed angrily, "Shut up and move!" They tried to stay quiet while leaving the basement, but they ran into some vampire guards guarding the stairwell.

"Well, looky here. We got some humans trying to escape, have we?" laughed one of the guards.

"No, we were just going to the restroom," Jesse quipped.

The undead guards laughed again in genuine amusement. "Nice try, bozo. We're taking you both to see Luke," one of the guards said. "He'll know what to with you two -"

But Jesse had a wooden stake with him, something he'd picked up outside of Angel's cell (it was useful threat against the ensouled vampire after all). McNally then used it to stake the mouthy vamp, which exploded into dust. At the same time, Warren tackled the other vampire to the floor, and then rolled out of the way for Jesse to lean down and dust that one as well. The intrepid duo then ran for the front doors of the club, only to be stopped again by Vamp Xander and Vamp Willow.

"You two flesh bags are going nowhere!" Vamp Willow growled. She pushed Warren into the wall, licking her lips in anticipation of an unexpected meal.

For his part, Vamp Xander grabbed the stake from Jesse and snapped it in half, tossing both pieces of wood aside. "Dude, you really thought that was going to work on *me*?"

"Guess not. Can't we talk about this, Xander?" Jesse tried to get past him, but failed.

Vamp Willow walked towards Warren with an evil grin. But she didn't know that Warren had one last trick up his sleeve. He hit her with a mix of potassium permanganate and glycerine, both chemicals previously in separate pockets, and Vamp Willow quickly collapsed into dust after instantly bursting into flames.

"NO!" Upon seeing this, Xander vamped out! He picked up one of the two wooden fragments that had landed on the floor. Enraged, he jabbed it into Warren's neck in the blink of an eye. "You son of a bitch!" he growled.

Warren fell over - dead in an instant, bleeding out from the neck. Then Vamp Xander returned his attention to Jesse, catching him just before the desperate prisoner made it out the front door into the safety of the daylight. "Goodbye, bud..." Vamp Xander growled as he twisted Jesse's neck, before he tossed the dead body to the floor.

{ Damn it, damn it, damn it! Who am I going to spend the rest of eternity with now? } "Willow!" Vamp Xander screamed in heartfelt pain.

Not all that far away, Angel heard him in his cell – and smiled to himself in weary pain and delight.

Back at Giles' place, Oz and Harmony finally came downstairs. "Amy?" Oz called out.

"You guys came right on time! Me and Giles have finally finished preparing for the ritual," Amy told her with a proud smile.

"Great! I can finally go home now," Harmony was glad to be leaving this hellhole version of Sunnydale.

Oz and Cordelia decided to take a seat on the couch, as did Buffy; her backup had left the apartment by now, the Council agents wanted to scout the town for the Slayer's first patrol tonight. Giles and Amy began the ritual, while Harmony stood with a sacred circle of sand with some nearby chicken feet placed in strategic places.

"Eyrishon. K'shala. Meh-uhn," Giles started to chant.

"Diprecht. Doh-tehenlo nu-Eyrishon," Amy chanted next.

"The child to the mother," Giles added.

"The river to the sea," Amy replied back.

"Eyrishon, hear our prayer and return this lost soul," the two then chanted together.

Giles and Amy cast the spell, calling on Eyrishon the Endless One to return Harmony to where she'd come from. But nothing happened – the ritual failed. Which was hardly surprising, of course; Harmony's original reality no longer existed, thanks to her Wish, and there was nowhere to send her to that fulfilled the criteria of the spell.

"Why am I still here?!" Harmony demanded, looking around at everyone in annoyance.

"Because the spell didn't work, you silly little girl," Giles shot back, looking equally annoyed. "Why else would you still be here?"

"That was pretty lame," Oz admitted, getting up to get something to drink. "Liquid refreshment?" he said to Buffy.

"Don't mind if I do," the Slayer nodded, following him to the kitchenette.

"Sorry, Harmony. But it looks like you're stuck here," Amy told the blond cheerleader.

Cordelia gave Harmony a much needed hug. Ignoring that, Amy asked the Watcher, "What went wrong?"

"It might have something to do with the Wish, Amy..." Giles mused, as he sat down with a look of defeat. "Or it might be something else. Who knows? It-it appears, though, that we need to go back to the drawing board, a-as it were."

"Great," Amy complained.

Later that night, Spike finally arrived in Sunnydale. It said a lot for William the Bloody that he had actually managed to drive over two thousand miles in a little over twenty-four hours, but then no one could ever accuse him of not being single-minded enough to pursue his goals when he really wanted to.

He parked the car near Hamilton Street, before getting out of the car and taking off the driving gloves he'd been wearing. Tossing 'em to the ground, Spike headed for the Bronze – not looking forward to seeing the Master, since he hadn't killed the Slayer as ordered. Spike headed to the lair anyway to meet his fate….

Elsewhere, Luke killed Amy just as she left Giles' condo in order to head on home for the night. He drained her dry with the satisfaction of a job well done, before getting rid of the body.

Back at the Bronze, Spike entered the vampire lair. The Master got to his feet from his throne chair, raising an eyebrow at the sight of the British vampire's eye-patch. "Ah, Spike, welcome. I heard that Drusilla was killed by a white hat." The Master didn't feel anything for Spike's loss, which was fairly evident from the smirk visible on his deformed, demonic features.

"She was, Master." Spike bowed to him reluctantly. "We failed. The Slayer's still coming to Sunnydale."

"I know, Spike."

William was abruptly sick and tired of this whole thing. "You gonna kill me for screwing up, then?"

"Not yet; not when it would be a... a waste to do so."

Spike shrugged. "Then what's the plan, where I'm concerned?"

The Master smiled viciously at him. "Why not join Xander, Spike, in dealing with Angelus? I have grown bored with his presence, I must admit. As much as I enjoy seeing Angelus in pain, enough is enough; I want him gone." The Master laughed, briefly. "Don't you?"

Spike grinned, evilly wicked. "Ya better believe I do!" The British vampire then took his leave of the Master, heading to the basement to meet with Vamp Xander.

Elsewhere, the Council agents met with the Slayer and told her the bad news; Giles was right, the entire town was *infested* with the undead. Buffy figured she may as well start on the streets, and thus she and her team immediately started cutting a swathe through the various undead openly hunting the human population!

Later that night, Spike and Vamp Xander brought Angel to an open area with an eastern exposure. They put two stakes into his hands and another two stakes into his feet, so that Angel was pinned to a wooden pole like a scarecrow.

"Right, that's that then. I hope you enjoy daylight, Angel!" Spike laughed.

"I just wish Willow could have been here to see this. She'd have loved to watch her puppy burn," Vamp Xander growled, still in a bad mood after the loss of his undead girlfriend. Spike just ignored the younger vampire's attitude.

"Let's go," Spike said with an evil laugh. They both took off back to the lair; leaving Angel there to be dusted by sunlight.

Clearing near Miller's Wood, November 25th 1997

Angel was sweating, sensing the upcoming sunrise. He'd been unable to escape his confinement; Spike and Vamp Xander had obviously known what they were doing. "No, no, no..."

When the sun rose a few moments later, Angel burst into flames! And then he collapsed into nothing but dust. It was a strangely ignominious end, for someone once known as the Scourge of Europe...

Elsewhere, Buffy and the Council agents arrived at Giles' place after a long hard night's Slayage. It truly had been like shooting fish in a barrel, in a sense – the undead had grown overly complacent lately, and the less smart ones had paid for that with their unlives.

The cars were parked near on the street, and the vampire hunters quickly made their way to the Watcher's apartment. Buffy knocked at the door, and Giles answered it at once.

"Miss Summers," Giles said simply, gesturing for her and the group to come inside. Even though it was broad daylight, it was senseless to take unnecessary chances. "Oz, could you go get the others?"

Oz dutifully went to get Cordelia and Harmony. And after hearing the results of last night's kill count, everyone gathered around the table – to make a plan on bringing down the Master!

Giles wasn't the only one who noticed that Amy never showed up to the meeting, though, and sent Oz to check on her. After the meeting was over, Harmony cornered the wish world version of Buffy and said, "Could we talk?"

Buffy shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. What is it?" She gave Harmony a calm, assessing look.

"Um, well... Mr. Giles explained it to me… It's sorta my fault that Sunnydale is like this." She didn't look Buffy in the eye as she said that, though.

"Okay, yeah, I heard that theory yesterday. So what?" Buffy was starting to not like this girl; the blond was wasting her precious downtime. Harmony looked around helplessly, and so Cordelia answered for her.

"Harmony made this lame ass wish, and we're thinking a demon granted it. And now, it look like the only way to undo it is to summon the scary demon lady in question. Which could get us all killed, apparently. Ask Giles, he knows more," the brunette gestured over to the Watcher.

Frowning, Buffy walked up to Giles and started demanding answers while the Council's kill team drank and talked among themselves, recharging their batteries. Cordelia simply sat on the couch and started reading a book, already bored with the whole thing. Harmony sat next to her, still struggling to deal with the pit of despair she now found herself trapped in.

With a sigh, Giles explained to Buffy in detail about the wish that Harmony made. And their lack of knowledge regarding the caster of the magicks. "There's many different types of wish granters out there, Miss Summers. Genies, djinn and the like. And a variety of demons with the power to change history, thanks to a human wishing for it." He cleaned his glasses with a heavy sigh. "I had hoped that the ritual Amy and I performed would be enough to send Miss Kendall back to where she belonged, but since it didn't..."

"You now wanna summon a demon? REALLY?" Buffy had a look of disbelief on her face.

"Believe me, I don't *want* to," Giles assured her. "It's risky. Lethally dangerous, even if I could come up with the right wards to entrap the female demon in question, once we identify her – assuming we can..."

"Listen, pal. Maybe it's just me, but I figure we already got enough on our plate with this Master vampire running this whole freaking town, you know what I'm saying? You want to risk your own neck summoning something that's going to kill you, do it *after* me and my people go back to Cleveland!" Buffy ordered him in no uncertain terms.

Later that night within his lair, the Master gave orders to his minions to take out the Slayer, her vampire hunters and the native white hats as well. Spike couldn't wait, his bloodlust now inflamed by getting rid of his grandsire. For his part, Luke kept an eye on the holding cells to make sure none of their human slaves tried to escape again.

"Oh, and before I forget..." The Master told Vamp Xander to get a group of vampires together to burn down any and all bases and hideouts, while the main army was doing battle with the enemy.

"Should I destroy Rupert Giles's place myself, boss?" Vamp Xander asked, still not having dealt with what had happened to Vamp Willow – and wanting to lash out at everyone he'd known as a human.

"His place and all others, Xander! I'm putting an end to this *pitiful* human resistance, tonight!" the Master growled evilly.

"As you command, Master." Xander bowed, and then left with a group of the best minions among the vampires.

By this point, Buffy, Oz, and the Council's vampire hunters had left Giles' apartment. They were headed to the Master's lair, planning to cut off the head of the demon and vampire community; the plan was for the Master's lieutenants to weaken themselves in the subsequent fight to take over the leadership role, and be easy pickings afterwards. Giles, Cordelia and Harmony had stayed behind, though; Rupert because someone needed to keep an eye the two female teens, and the girls because they had no role to play in the upcoming battle.

"So, still no word from Amy, Giles?" Cordelia asked with a worried look. The witch had been missing for a while now, after all.

"No, nothing. I, I think it's safe to assume the worst," Giles replied sadly, even though none of them knew that Amy had been killed by Luke.

"That sucks," Harmony whispered, still trapped in her own personal hell. But at that moment –

– at the high school ruins, Jareth appeared. The demon had finally figured out what had ruined his plans where DELOS and Westworld facility were concerned, and he was *not* happy with the way things had been going since then.

Elsewhere, Buffy's team broke into the Master's lair and started their attack. But the vampires were ready for them!

Elsewhere Vamp Xander's group came crashing down on various human residences, known or suspected resistance hideouts in Sunnydale. They made quick work out of each of them, often burning the buildings down! Vamp Xander was enjoying his victory, but again – something was missing.

{ I need to find a substitute for Willow, } he thought to himself, finally putting her loss aside. { Still, who should it be? Hmm, maybe my old crush Cordelia? Now that has possibilities... }

Back at the lair, the one-eyed Spike tore through the humans with evil glee. He was doing this not just for himself, but for Drusilla as well! Vampires got dusted. Humans got torn apart. It was total chaos!

The Master decided to take on the Slayer, due to the prophecy that he would kill her. Both of them began to attack the other.

"It's almost a shame that you're destined to lose this battle, Slayer!" The Master grinned evilly at her.

"Yeah, well, it's almost a shame that you're one ugly-looking vamp," Buffy mocked him.

They continued to trade blows at one another. Abruptly switching his focus, Spike watched them from the sidelines, no longer indulging his mindless bloodlust. { Maybe I could turn the Slayer. Let her weaken The Master, and then go for the kill. Then Sunnydale will be mine for the taking! } Spike smiled to himself. It was risky – but then, he hadn't gotten to where he was within the vampire community without being afraid to take a few risks!

Within the high school ruins, Jareth summoned Anyanka with a mere thought and hand gesture. And boy, was she mad about being summoned that way!

"How *dare* you do this?!" She gave him an evil glare. "Do you even know what I do to any *man* who tries to summon me?"

"I am no man, Anyanka. I'm a demon! And your lame excuse for a wish has gotten in the way of my plans. Now, are we going to do this the easy way, or the hard way?" Without waiting for an answer, Jareth attacked her – punching the demoness directly in the face.

She fought him back, but to her consternation, Jareth seemed unaffected by her physical blows. Anyanka then tried to teleport away, intending to continue the fight on a battleground more to her liking, but to her shock – she found herself unable to go anywhere. She was stuck here! { Oh, no...this is not good. Not good at all! }

For the first time in centuries, the vengeance demon was worried that she had finally bitten off more than she could chew...

Back at the Bronze, Buffy was no match for the Master. He punched her in the chest, and she went flying away into a wall. She hit that part of the Bronze so hard, it did a *lot* of damage to Buffy's body. She landed face down with a thud, collapsing in a heap of broken bones.

"That should be enough to kill even the Slayer," the Master chuckled, before turning away to see how the rest of the battle was going.

At that moment, Spike saw his chance to turn the Slayer. He went to her wounded body and started to drain the dying Chosen One.

"Spike, what-? NO! The Slayer is mine to feed on!" Instantly, the Master was really ticked off with Spike. Kicking the younger vampire away, the Master sensed how Spike had already drained her. So he bit his wrist and fed Buffy his blood!

It was a risk, though. The becoming ritual required him to both drain the Slayer and feed her his blood. Would the newly risen vampiress be loyal to him, with the job only half-complete?

"Spike, you will pay for this!" the Master growled in rage. It was too bad for him though that he hadn't noticed Spike picking up the stake that Buffy had dropped, hiding it up his sleeve. The Master simply ran at the one-eyed British vampire, slamming him hard into the wall (which almost collapsed from the impact).

"Any last words, Spike?" the Master demanded with an evil grin.

"How about 'surprise'?' Spike palmed the stake, and then shoved it right into his enemy's chest before the Master could blink.

The Master screamed, "Noooooooo!" as his body collapsed into nothing but a skeleton! Spike became the new undead ruler of Sunnydale, even as the battle continued to rage all around him; and as his first act as the new master of the Hellmouth, he looked for something to smash the Master's bones...

Back at the remains of Sunnydale High, Jareth threw Anyanka to the ground after grabbing her amulet. "The source of your power, isn't it? In order to defeat you, and nullify all the wishes you've granted, all I need to do is smash this?"

"DON'T YOU DARE!" Anyanka screamed in fury and fear.

"Shut up. No more wish-granting for you, Anyanka." He crushed the amulet in his hand, which exploded in a burst of green light; and then the entire universe vanished into a white void.

Sunnydale High School Quad, Sunnydale, November 22nd 1997

Sunnydale was back to normal. The Wish was undone. And for the first time in over a thousand years, Anya found herself human again. She glanced down at her chest, and sure enough, her amulet was gone. "NO-!"

"Yes. And be warned – get in my way again, Anyanka, and I will kill you!" With that simple warning, Jareth vanished from view.

Anya looked around, and saw that stupid woman-child Harmony walking along – it was fairly obvious just by looking at her that she had no memory of the Wish world, the last three days had been erased from her existence. She made a wish, just as before, but nothing happened this time. The blond cheerleader then walked back into the main building of the school…

While Anya had no idea what to do next.


	18. Chapter 18

Sunnydale rooftop, summer of 1999

That evening, Kendra the Vampire Slayer knew she was in trouble, but she had no idea just how much *worse* the trouble could have been – had the Wish world Anyanka had created not been undone, roughly 18 months ago.

Had Jareth not done what he did, Spike would have been ruling over Sunnydale right now, and Buffy would have become a vampire – turning on her Council backup, and eventually killing them all.

Luke, *vastly* unhappy that the Master was killed by Spike, would have tried to personally slay William the Bloody – but instead, he would have been taken down by Vamp Xander and Vamp Buffy, and Spike would have finished Luke off with a quick stake to the heart.

Oz would have eventually been killed by Spike's minions while Giles, Cordelia and a pitiful few vampire hunters would have (just barely) escaped the attack on Rupert's apartment, led by Vamp Buffy and Vamp Xander.

The humans that would have rebelled against Spike's rule would have been hunted down and slain, without mercy.

Both Giles and Cordelia would have eventually been found by Vamp Xander and Vamp Buffy, as well. The female vampire would have simply snapped Giles' neck, while the male one would have drained Cordelia – and *finally* created an acceptable substitute for Vamp Willow…

But, again, thanks to Jareth - none of that had ever happened. A Wish world that had once briefly been real, now existed only as a might-have-been. And Kendra was in no position right now to be concerned about might-have-been's.

The Caribbean Slayer had recently returned to Sunnydale, the same Hellmouth she'd visited back in late 1997. She had beaten the former Billy Fordham; also known as Count Orlok, who had planned to open the Hellmouth. But as a consequence, right now, she was no match for Spike; as Count Orlok had wounded her rather badly, during their recent death match.

Still, Kendra gave it her all as they went at it in the pouring rain, on a rooftop. But she was too slow, and Spike cut off the Slayer's hand - the one wielding the stake - with a wicked grin on his face.

"This is the end o' the road for you, luv! Too bad the Summers bint isn't 'ere to join you..." Spike mocked her. "Must hurt always being considered number two where she's concerned, eh?"

Kendra tried to rush him in a blind rage, but Spike roundhouse kicked her easily. The junior Chosen One went flying into a brick wall from the superhuman strength of the kick, as Drusilla appeared on the rooftop. One look, and Dru could tell Kendra wasn't getting up again. She was dead.

Somewhere in Boston a Potential Slayer gasped, feeling her new power – and knowing that her life would never be the same again...

"Ohhh... you overdid it, my precious 'eart." She smiled, looking at the dead Slayer laying there before returning her gaze to Spike. "Who's a good boy, then?"

"Thanks, Dru. And yer right - it *was* a bit overkill, I hafta admit. But what the hell! She's still mostly warm - let's bleed the Slayer dry!"

They both vamped out, and proceeded to desecrate Kendra's corpse, the way soulless vampires did...

Giles residence, November 23rd 1997

Kendra was in the guest bedroom, sound asleep, but then she started having a Slayer dream featuring a strange-looking vampire. In her dream, the vampire opened a book – and then, the Hellmouth opened up within the school library!

She also saw how, deep within the Hellmouth, there was a very dark and powerful monster with glowing eyes. Clawing its way up to the now-open Hell's Maw. The monster looked like some kind of dinosaur, with large claws and teeth. Nasty, and clearly evil!

The next moment, Kendra woke up, visibly sweating. { That must be the demon I have to slay for my mission here in Sunnydale. I have to stop this strange vampire from opening the Hellmouth. I must warn Mr. Giles and the others! }

Elsewhere, Count Orlok had found the magic store named "Magicks Through the Ages" in neon bluish-red. He looked around to see if Buffy or the vampire named Angel, whom Spike had recently told him about, were nearby. Seeing that the coast was clear, he went inside the magic store.

The bell jingled when the shop door opened. Ignoring that, the former Billy Fordham looked around, seeing all kinds of magic items – orbs, weapons with magical spells built in, magic armor and cursed masks. There were other things as well, all dealing with magic. There were some humans browsing around, but also vampire and demon patrons present within the store.

{ No matter. } Count Orlok walked towards the counter where the shopkeeper – a warlock of some sort, he could tell by the shopowner's clothing – was going over orders with a witch.

The warlock finally noticed him, so he thanked the witch and she left to help out another customer. "How may I help you, sir?" asked the shop owner.

"Can you fix this?" Count Orlok took out the lock box with the pieces of the Gem of Amara still inside. "As you can see, the gem has been pretty much smashed..."

The warlock looked inside the lock box. "Hmmm, yes, and into quite a few pieces as well." He grinned at Count Orlok. "Luckily for you, you've come to the right guy for help to fix it. But it will cost you."

"Really, how much?" Count Orlok pseudo-sighed after hearing this.

"A very high price," the warlock replied, still smiling politely.

"I only have twenty bucks," Count Orlok admitted, as he pulled out the banknote from his pocket.

The shopkeeper's smile instantly vanished. "That won't get you much here, I'm afraid. Unless you're interested in a cursed mask?"

"Really? A lame mask of some sort?" Count Orlok rolled his eyes.

"Don't laugh, you'd be surprised just how popular they are with some of my customers! Give a cursed mask to your enemy, and they'll soon wish that they had never messed with you in the first place!" The warlock laughed, briefly. "Okay, let's be clear on this. If you want me to fix your gem, I'll need a down payment of more than just twenty dollars." He grinned charmingly at the vampire.

"Like I said. I have nothing else to offer right now," the former Billy Fordham made his position clear.

The warlock sighed, the salesman's grin vanishing again. "Look, pal, I like you – so let's not haggle, okay? I'll take a human soul as payment for services rendered. Or even a chaos-spelled Halloween costume, from last All Hallow's Eve. I bet there's some still decent magic left on some of the costumes." The warlock smiled evilly.

Again, Count Orlok pseudo-sighed heavily. "I guess I could go looking in Ethan Rayne's store…."

Later that night Spike and Drusilla made plans for leaving the Hellmouth, to start making arrangements for bringing all of the Judge's parts here to Sunnydale. That was bad news in one sense, of course, but also good news as well for the Scooby gang – since they didn't have worry about Spike and Drusilla killing people, at least not for now.

"We'll have to leave Sunnyhell to get most of the Judge's parts, Dru," Spike admitted with an annoyed frown. Sure, he got really bored around here on occasion – so did Drusilla and the minions – but it wasn't smart abandoning your power base, so soon after creating it. Oh well, never mind, they'd be back soon –

Dru grinned, with an insane look on her face. "Let's leave tonight, Spoike!" She then smiled childishly at him.

"Should we tell Count Orlok about the plan, sir?" one of the minions asked.

No, don't tell that bloody wanker anything. I don't trust him!" Spike snarled in annoyance. "You lot just get them bits o' the Judge that're here in Sunnydale. Got it?"

"Yessir!" the minions all nodded dutifully, before the group split up.

Angel had been watching the mansion whenever he could, and thus he took note of the undead leaving their lair. He wondered where they were going, naturally enough. Unfortunately, without a car, Angel could only watch as Spike and Drusilla drove away from Sunnydale, to make the arrangements with their connections in Los Angeles…

For his part, Count Orlok reached the safety of the mansion just in time; sunrise had already arrived, by the time he slipped in through the front door. He quickly learned that both Spike and Drusilla had left, thanks to one of the minions. Even though said minion kept quiet about *why* they'd left.

{ Bah. Who cares? } Indeed, right now Count Orlok could care less about what Spike and Drusilla were up to. He simply went upstairs to bed, and the minions went back to playing cards and sleeping themselves.

All seemed well...but then, around here, appearances could be and often were deceiving.

Sunnydale High School Library, November 24th 1997

Not long after sunset, Angel told the gathered Scooby gang that Drusilla and Spike had left town.

"Finally, some good news!" Xander joked feebly.

Buffy just sighed and rolled her eyes and, not far away, Kendra didn't seem to think this was good news either. "Dey must be up ta somet'ing," Kendra said in her Jamaican accent.

"Yes, um, Kendra has a point," Giles nodded with a sigh. "Those two wouldn't have left the Hellmouth for no reason, after all."

"And we have no idea what they're up to, do we?" the Willow-bot said, with a worried look on its face.

"No. Neider do we know how dis relates to me Slayer dream, de one I had last night," Kendra said thoughtfully, before looking at Giles.

"All we can do is, is try to research it. Figure things out," the Watcher explained to the gathered teenagers. "All of you, grab a book and start looking..."

Abandoned mansion on Crawford Street, January 16th 1998

It had been busy here on the Hellmouth the last couple of months or so, there was no denying that.

Spike and Drusilla had come back from Los Angeles, and engaged in all sorts of mayhem and terror as they waited for the Judge's parts to come in from all over the world. Count Orlok had tried to come up with some form of payment to get the Gem of Amara repaired, but that warlock shopkeeper had stubbornly refused anything he'd offered, refusing to haggle at all! It was either a soul or a Halloween costume, or nothing!

Kendra had suffered from bad dreams for weeks, and so had Buffy, once her own nightmares about the monster ascending from within the Hellmouth had started. Jareth's two robot spies had reported to their master what was going on, but there was nothing that demon could do, even if he'd wanted to – which he didn't.

Jareth was too busy experimenting with Ted Buchanan's parts, after all.

Xander had kept himself busy as well, experimenting with his own powers, courtesy of the Orbs of Nezzla'khan (not that he knew that part of it). And as for Cordelia? Apart from deliberately not thinking about Xander Harris, she'd been busy cementing her rule over Sunnydale High's elite, cutting down her time with the Slayage crowd to the barest minimum – to prevent unwelcome rumors and plots of rebellion from occurring.

Even though Queen C couldn't help scowling, whenever she saw Xander and Kendra together...

But despite all that, following a premonition of danger, Angel had snuck through the rooftop of Spike and Dru's lair earlier tonight. He hid in the darkness of the mansion's rafters, and waited. And waited. And waited – until the sounds of undead conversation finally reached his ears.

That was when Angel overheard that Spike and Dru were planning on reassembling The Judge. So later that night, after he'd stopped freaking out and left the mansion, Angel told the Scooby gang what he'd learned those two were up to, once they all assembled at the Watcher's apartment.

"So, Spike and Drusilla are going to rebuild this Judge guy?" Cordelia demanded, thinking that this couldn't possibly be a good thing.

"And, and bring forth Armageddon. Once the Judge is, is active, almost nothing can stop him..." Giles looked shocked. "It took an army the last time – nearly all of them died, and even then, a-all they could accomplish was to dismember him, not kill him!"

"But he's not complete – the rest of the body parts are still on their way here, right?" Buffy demanded, looking around at her friends.

"Far as we know." The Oz-bot hadn't said anything at during the meeting so far, but it decided to speak up now.

"Den we should take dese parts away from Spike and his henchmen, before it's too late," Kendra proclaimed, wanting to slay some vamps. Almost itching to do so, as a matter of fact.

"I'll search on the Internet," the Willow-bot offered with a nervous grin. "Maybe I'll find something on that 'Demons, Demons, Demons' website?"

"Sounds like a plan. But what do we do once we find 'em, Giles?" Xander asked, looking concerned.

"Destroy them, somehow," Giles said, as he let out a yawn. Well, it was starting to get pretty late, after all.

"I'll go see Willie, learn if he knows anything about this," Angel offered, before vanishing out of the condo.

"Great, good luck with that!" Xander rolled his eyes at Angel's signature move.

After Angel left, the others eventually left as well, heading off home. Tomorrow promised to be a very busy day, after all.

A potential apocalypse was at hand...


	19. Chapter 19

Sunnydale, November 1st 1997

Andrew Wells parked his dad's car close by Ethan's store, late on Saturday night. He had heard what had happened the previous evening from his brother Tucker, and figured he wanted to get in on the action himself; namely, turn into his Halloween costume, like Tucker had.

{ Not sure how it works, but I want to be Obi-wan Kenobi for the night, } the nerd thought to himself. { Or someone like that, anyway. Depends on what I can find… }

He broke into the store and looked around. The whole place looked kinda bare, with empty shelves and a couple of mannequins. Discouraged, Andrew searched everywhere...

And eventually, he found a Mr. Freeze costume in a dust-covered box hidden in the back. "Whoa, totally cool!" He left the store with the costume, putting it inside his car and then heading off home.

Naturally, Andrew's efforts to become Mr. Freeze failed at first. For one thing, he was no mage, even though (like Tucker) he discovered he had a talent for summoning demons with a magic flute. He couldn't petition Janus for help like Ethan Rayne could, either. But refusing to give up, Andrew searched and searched for a way to become Mr. Freeze –

And eventually, thanks to a scumbag magic dealer named Rack, he succeeded…

Sunnydale High School, January 17th 1998

Xander met up with Buffy and Willow in the main corridor. "Hey, gals, what's the what?"

"Need to talk to Giles about the whole Judge thing," Buffy replied.

"Oh yeah, that -" Xander started to say, as they headed towards their home room. But at that moment, Andrew – or more accurately, Mr. Freeze – entered the scene.

Xander blinked; the new arrival had blue skin, and was also wearing red lens goggles. Thanks to his geek cred, Xander easily recognized how the bad guy was holding a freeze gun in his hand. { Oh, crap - }

"Halloween was months ago, dude!" some random sophomore laughed derisively.

"Ice off, 'dude'!" Andrew replied with an accent like Arnold Schwarzenegger's, before he fired his freeze gun at his target. A beam of ice encompassed the guy, who instantly ended up trapped in a block of ice!

Grinning madly, Mr. Freeze blasted anyone else in his way. Even Principal Snyder! The teenage trio split up as screams and running students filled the school corridor; Buffy tried to get to Mr. Freeze, while Willow and Xander went looking for Giles. They ran into Cordelia along the way...

"What the hell's going on?" the Chase girl demanded, shoving people out of her way.

"Some guy is going totally freeze-happy with his ice gun!" the Willow-bot said in a panicked voice.

"Giles – library – now!" Xander barked out, grabbing Cordelia by the wrist and dragging her along with him. As they headed towards Scooby Central, in the rush and the crowd, they lost Willow – who ran into Giles, while Xander and Cordelia kept going. Unfortunately, at practically the same moment, Oz got frozen by Mr. Freeze!

Buffy spotted the frozen Oz-bot. "Don't worry, Oz, I'll find something to unfreeze you with – I hope..."

Down the hallway, the crush and the rush forced Xander and Cordelia to take cover. Harris spotted a janitor's closet, quickly opening it up and dragging Cordelia and himself inside. After closing the closet door, he heard a loud click. "Ah, damn it!"

Cordelia didn't like the sound of that. "Out of my way, Doofus!" She shoved him aside and tried the door handle, but it was no use; they were locked in. "You IDIOT!"

"Hey, it's not my fault," Xander retorted, this was the last conversation he wanted to be stuck in. "Besides, would you rather be trapped in here, or get trampled to death out there?"

"Huh. Okay, point. And just typical, you know – some nut job has gone postal on the school," Cordelia sniffed disdainfully. Xander just shrugged and rolled his eyes. She then asked, "Any idea who it is?"

"I *think* it's some sophomore I've seen around somewhere, but I don't know his name. And how the *hell* did that guy pull off a Halloween gig, and become Mr. Freeze?" Xander demanded.

"Why ask me?" Cordelia replied bitingly. "I *avoid* the weirdness, remember? So now what, Dweeb?" she asked him, she wasn't happy being locked in a smelly broom closet of all places.

"I dunno. Wanna make out or something?" Xander said with a grin.

Cordelia smacked him on the arm. "Be serious!"

"Okay, fine. Let's talk," Xander shrugged.

"About what?"

"I dunno. Uh, Buffy's birthday is coming up in a few days, we were thinking of throwing her a party – assuming we survive until then," Xander grimaced. "You wanna come?"

Cordelia blinked. "Are you asking me out on a date?" Off Xander's disbelieving look, she sighed and said, "Fine, my mistake. And why not – okay, I'll buy her a gift and everything!"

"Cool. And please, don't bring some idiot jock along as a date – this little shindig is pretty much Scooby Gang members only," Xander warned her. "Comprendez?"

"Comprendez? What are you now, world traveller or something?" Cordy asked heatedly. Who did this guy think he was, giving her orders like that? Not to mention, treating her like she was an official member of the school's leper colony?

"Better that, than the being the school bike," Xander said equally heatedly, starting to get angry.

"Asshole."

"Trump!"

"Moron!"

"Shrew!"

"Idiot!"

"Hussy!"

"Bastard!"

"No way. I was at my parents' wedding."

"Uggh!"

They began to fight, pulling each other's hair – before, and of all the weirdest things, they started to make out instead!

{ What am I doing? } Cordelia thought dazedly to herself, her lips firmly socketed against Xander's. { Why the hell am I *kissing* this dork? }

They kissed feverishly, passionately and wantonly before she eventually shoved him away. "How *dare* you kiss me, you loser?!"

Xander replied, "Uh, not sure. Because you're the most beautiful girl in Sunnydale, maybe?"

"Grrrrr..." Her hormones almost turning her brain into mush, Cordelia raised her arm to slap him...

...before she yanked his head down and plastered herself against him, her tongue working frantically against his.

Not far away, Amy Madison was using her magic to discreetly unfreeze people – including Principal Snyder. It was pretty easy for her. She also wiped everyone's minds of her help, so they wouldn't find out that she was a novice witch. { The less people who know, the better! } Amy thought to herself.

Elsewhere, Buffy wasn't having any luck unfreezing Oz. Willow and Giles showed up, with the majority of the students having disappeared by now, and the Willow-bot cried out, "Buffy, are you alright? Oh no, Oz!"

"Good lord, w-what happened to him?!" Giles demanded, gesturing at Oz – he hadn't seen anything like this before.

"Can you unfreeze him, Giles?" the worried-sounding Willow-bot wanted to know.

"You guys help Oz; I'll go stop Mr. Freeze, before he turns the whole school into the next Ice Age!" Buffy took off.

Elsewhere, the possessed version of Andrew laughed sinisterly as he fired the freeze gun at another person. "Today, hell freezes over!"

Kendra spotted Mr. Freeze down the hallway. "Whoever you are, ya better stop what yer doin' right now!" she warned him.

Mr. Freeze instantly turned his freeze gun on her. But Kendra grabbed a book off the floor and threw it at him, with superhuman speed and strength. The book knocked the freeze gun from his hand, before it landed on the floor.

"You will pay for that!" Mr. Freeze told the Slayer in an ice-cold voice.

Responding to the challenge, Kendra ran at him and slammed Mr. Freeze into a nearby locker. Amy, who was running through the hall, saw the Jamaican girl start to punch the hell out of her target.

{ So Andrew Wells was the one turning everyone into blocks of ice, } Amy sighed to herself. She knew he would be no match for the Slayer. Heck, Kendra almost broke his helmet! A few painful moments later, the ice-cold figure lay on the floor, unconscious and totally beaten up. Luckily, the freeze suit stopped the powerful punches from Kendra from being lethal ones.

"I think he's had enough." Amy went to check on Mr. Freeze, who was down and out for the count.

"Den keep an eye on him, until I come back..." Kendra picked up the freeze gun off the floor. { I better give this to Mr. Giles. } She left, heading to the library.

By this point, Giles had summoned Ms. Calendar, who worked some magic on unfreezing Oz. Once unfrozen, the Oz-bot fell to its knees, acting cold and freezing. Luckily for the Oz-bot and Willow-bot, Jareth's robots couldn't be damaged by being frozen in ice. Still, Willow hugged Oz, acting like she was trying to warm up her boyfriend – channeling the real Willow's feelings from her prison, far away at DELOS.

It worked, too – the Willow-bot was totally convincing!

A short while later, Buffy stopped by the janitor's closet on her way to class, as she'd heard some strange noises coming from the other side of the door. "Is anyone in there?" the Slayer called out.

"Yeah! It's us, Buff! Cordelia and I are locked in – open up!" Xander's voice called out from behind the door.

Looking amazed, Buffy opened the closet door, before both Xander and Cordelia rushed out of there. "What the-?"

"Freedom at last. Thanks, Buffy!" Harris said with a smile, before he explained why they'd ended up trapped in there.

Cordelia just sighed and rolled her eyes. { I can't believe I spent all that time in that yucky closet, trapped alone with that lamer! Still – I guess it wasn't all bad, Xander was a pretty decent kisser if nothing else. Oh my God, do I actually want to do that with him *again*? Oh, no, I do! Somebody, help! I've gone completely nuts! }

Not far away, Amy helped Andrew get to his feet. "Andrew, are you alright?"

"I guess. Ugh...that Rack guy didn't warn me it would be like this!" Andrew said muzzily, the effects of the temporary costume possession having worn off by now.

"What are you talking about?" Amy demanded, before Andrew confessed what he'd done. "You let yourself get *possessed*? Are you nuts?" she then demanded.

"Uh, no; I was just sick and tired of everyone at school picking on me," Andrew told her simply.

Amy just shook her head, before grabbing Andrew by the wrist and they headed towards the library. Moments later, everyone else arrived at the library. Willow gave Oz a blanket, and he thanked her for it. Followed by a quick kiss between the two machines, which grew more heated as time went on...

Amy and Andrew then burst in through the double doors. Buffy and Kendra took up attack stances, but quickly relaxed when they took in the situation, how Andrew was looking pathetic and defeated. Giles locked up the freeze gun to be dealt with later, as Amy started to talk – telling everyone what had happened.

Andrew added in his piece about what happened after he put on the Mr. Freeze costume. "I, I didn't want to hurt anyone – I was just tired of being bullied all the time, y'know? So I stole a Halloween costume from that abandoned Ethan's costume store. And, and I went to this magician named Rack to make it the real deal. Next thing I know, I'm freezing people at the school..." He looked down at his hands in shame.

"Consider yourself lucky Kendra didn't kill you," Buffy spat at him, "you moron! What the hell were you thinking?"

"I heard some people were permanently changed last Halloween. So, will Andrew die if he takes off the suit?" Amy asked, ignoring that.

"If he's like Mr. Freeze now, I'd say so," Xander said, wondering why there couldn't be just one boring day at school. Although, come to think of it, boring was overrated – hey, he'd just made out with Cordelia! And Queen C hadn't killed him for it? Best day ever, so far this year!

"Can de effects of de possession be reversed, Mr. Giles?" Kendra asked curiously.

"Err, I'm not sure. Chaos magic, not really my area of expertise..." Giles cleaned his glasses, deep in thought.

"So, I might have to wear this costume for the rest of my life?" Andrew didn't like the sound of that.

"Who cares if you do? Go ask your friend Rack for answers, or help," Buffy said angrily, pushing the protesting Andrew towards the doors. "We've got our own problems right now!"

Westworld facility, summer of 1999

Over at DELOS, Jareth was experimenting with the Ted Buchanan-bot parts and seeing how well they worked with his upgrades. { Hmmm... }

Ethan walked into Jareth's lab. "What do you plan on doing with the parts from that robot, Jareth?"

"I'm planning to make an android that would lead my army, Ethan," the demon laughed, briefly. "Oh, I almost forgot – look at this..."

"Some poor fool who's wearing one of my old chaos-spelled costumes?" Ethan grinned, as the wall opened up and the frozen figure of Andrew Wells appeared, still wearing the Mr. Freeze suit.

"Yes, I've had him on ice here for a while now." Jareth suddenly wondered whether he could use a new pawn in his plan…

Sunnydale High School library, January 17th 1998

After Andrew had left in ignominious shame, Amy wasn't sure if she should tell the gang that she was a witch. She didn't really know many of them well enough, and they weren't exactly friends for that matter. Putting that aside, though, she listened as the Scooby Gang discussed what to do about the Judge – before Kendra mentioned the dream she'd had yet again, the one she'd been having for nearly two months now. The one where a vampire read a book, and a *huge* demon erupted out of the Hellmouth…

"All we have to do is find this book before this vampire does, right?" Oz asked, finally saying something.

"It would seem so," Kendra replied, kinda antsy since she didn't done much slaying this week.

"We should focus on finding the book, as well as the Judge's parts," Jenny Calendar finally spoke up. So they all started making plans...

Over at the old mansion, Count Orlok wasn't sure what to do; a human soul, or a chaos-spelled Halloween costume, in order to fix the Gem? { Haven't had much luck finding either, } he thought to himself in annoyance. { Fine, a costume it is, then; souls are a tricky business, after all. }

Later that night, Count Orlok went to Ethan's store to look around. But that was pointless; by this point, the store was kinda rundown with a lot of dust and spiderwebs here and there. Besides… he had checked here before, and more than once, since the warlock had made that offer. So the former Billy Fordham left the store to go see the warlock again.

Elsewhere, Buffy and Kendra went looking for the book the Jamaican Slayer had seen in her prophetic dream. The Willow and Oz robots reported the latest developments to their demon master. Xander and Cordelia enjoyed themselves necking in the back seat of her car. While Angel went to Willy's bar to see if he could get any info on where Spike and Drusilla were at, in terms of rebuilding the Judge


	20. Chapter 20

Mausoleum within Sunnydale Memorial Cemetery, January 17th 1998

By luck or skill or whatever you wanted to call it, the Chosen Two had found the book that could be used to open the Hellmouth in Kendra's Slayer dreams. Unfortunately...they weren't the only ones to stumble across it that night.

Buffy kicked a deformed-looking demon in the face, as it went flying away. Kendra punched another demon, and it likewise went flying into a wall of the tomb. "Buffy, dis cannot be a coincidence!" the Caribbean Slayer told her mystical sibling in between punches.

"You mean us finding that book, and the bad guys showing up straightaway? Yeah, already figured that out," the petite blonde replied, before having to focus on her latest opponent. "By the way, what's with you and Xander?"

"I don't know what ya mean," Kendra replied, trying to concentrate on the conversation in between punches.

"Well, are you still having naughty Slayer thoughts about him? Trying to butter him up with Twinkies and Ho-Ho's? Wanting to – ouch!" Buffy yelped, as her latest opponent got in a lucky punch.

"Ya need ta concentrate more on killin' and less on gossip, right now!" Kendra told her sternly. { And no, I think it's pretty obvious Xander doesn't feel that way about me – he only has eyes for that Cordelia girl, however much he wants to deny it! }

While the Chosen Two fought the demons in that tomb, Count Orlok returned to the store named "Magicks Through The Ages" with one of Ethan's chaos-spelled Halloween costumes. By a stroke of good fortune, he had stumbled across the red devil outfit that one of the children which the Willow-bot had escorted that night. It was enough to put the former Billy Fordham in a good mood; he knew that rummaging through people's trash would pay off one of these days!

He walked inside the magic store. The warlock recognised him and said, "Oh, it's you! Have you had any luck in getting a human soul to trade for services to be rendered?"

"No, and I'm pretty sure you already know that," Count Orlok shrugged. "I did, however, finally manage to find a chaos-spelled Halloween costume instead." The Count walked over to the counter, setting down the costume in front of the proprietor of the store. "Well?"

The warlock looked over the costume for a full minute. "I do sense some chaos magic there. Not much, but still. Okay, what the heck, a deal's a deal - I'll fix your gem for you in exchange for this!"

Count Orlok smiles to himself. "Excellent." He took out the lockbox from within his cloak and set it down next the costume. "Is now a good time?"

"Do you see any other customers in here, right at the moment?" Indeed, the store was currently deserted (other than the two of them) as the warlock picked up the costume and then put it underneath the counter. "Let's fix that gem, shall we?" The warlock worked his magic as the lockbox opened up and Gem pieces flew into the air.

"Hmm," the warlock grunted as the Gem pieces glowed brightly, and the mystical artifact started to put itself back together. "This could take a while..." the shop owner then muttered, he hadn't been expecting the gem to have quite so many mystical qualities.

"Take your time, but make sure the job's done right. Otherwise, we're going to have a problem," Count Orlok said with a definite hint of menace in his voice.

Elsewhere at that moment, Angel entered Willy's bar. "Willy."

"Hello, Angel. I hope you're not here make another ruckus," Willy didn't pause in wiping his bar counter, as the snitch said that to the ensouled vampire.

"Wasn't planning on it, Willy. Got any information where Spike and Drusilla are concerned, especially regarding the Judge's body parts?" Angel demanded roughly.

"No. And I'm telling ya, I still can't believe they're out to rebuild that thing. Thought those two were smarter than that, wanting to bring about Armageddon and all! Still, vampires. Whatcha gonna do?" Willy replied with a heavy sigh. "By the way, you still owe me for last time – and no more putting it off, pal, I got expenses to cover. You got the money?"

Angel nodded and tossed a number of dead presidents down onto the counter. Willy took the cash and nodded, "Nice doing business with you. So, anything else you wanna know?"

"What can you tell me about this Count Orlok character I heard about?" Angel abruptly asked.

"Oh, the vampire that looks like a Nosferatu from the days of the old black and white silent films? Yeah, that guy showed up here once, I think it was after Halloween sometime. Didn't stay long, pretty sure he didn't like the ambience of the place. Again, whatcha gonna do? Anyway, I heard some of Spike's vamps talking about him, apparently he'd holed up in their lair -"

"That old mansion on Crawford Street," Angel interrupted, recalling his previous trip there.

"Yeah, rumor has it. Anyway, that's all I know," Willy told the vampire, holding out his hand for more cash.

"Has this so-called Count showed up anywhere else?" Angel asked, ignoring that.

"Nope, not that I know of. All I know is he's rooming with Spike and Drusilla at that old mansion." Willy frowned as Angel tossed him a twenty dollar bill and then left the bar. "Undead cheapskate..."

Back at the cemetery, Buffy and Kendra escaped the mausoleum with the book and their lives. They blocked the tomb's doorway so the demons couldn't get out along the way. "We should report back ta Mistah Giles," the Jamaican Slayer opined once the job was done.

"Yeah, he'll probably want to know that we *finally* got our hands on the book," Buffy nodded, glad to have gotten away from the battle without serious injury. "He's probably gonna start drooling over it, actually, once he reads what's in it." With that, the two girls left the cemetery and headed back towards the school.

Earlier that evening, Xander and Cordelia had been making out in the back seat of her car in a secluded spot not far from Lovers' Lane. The windows were all fogged up, as Cordelia slid down onto her back and dragged Xander on top of her.

"What are we do-?" Xander managed to say, after briefly unlocking his lips from hers.

"Xander, shut up!" Cordelia ordered him in no uncertain terms, spreading her legs apart as her new boyfriend's body settled into position. "I mean, do you even want to be here?"

"As the bulge in my pants will most definitely attest, heck yes!" Xander told her, before another heavy make-out session took place. When they came up for air again, he added, "It's just kinda weird, is all. We go from wanting to kill each other to wanting to kiss each other, just like that?"

"Yeah, so?" It was obvious Cordelia didn't want to talk right now.

"Well, I just -" Xander's voice was cut off by Cordelia's lips attaching themselves to his yet again, and all the blood drained ever further south from his head towards his groin...

A bit later on, he and Cordelia met up with Willow and Oz (well, the robot spies impersonating them, but whatever) at the Bronze. There was no *chance* of the cheerleader being willing to go all the way on a first date with him, and in order to remove the temptation to go further than he should (truth was, he wasn't ready for that sort of intimacy any more than his girlfriend was), they had decided to head for the teen club tonight.

In a massive leap of faith, though, Cordelia had decided to let herself be seen in public with her boyfriend – and the rumors and gossip that Xander Harris and Cordelia Chase were now an item began to spread like wildfire!

But then a demon appeared inside the club, looking for the Slayers. The demon worked for the Mayor, Richard Wilkins; a man who had plans of his own, and didn't want the Slayers to get in the way of them. Unfortunately, the minion wasn't too smart and had misinterpreted his employer's desire for non-interference as taking care of the problem in a *permanent* way.

"Where are the Slayers?" the demon yelled to the crowd, proving the old saying true – good help was impossible to find nowadays. A number of humans and vampires winced at the social faux pas, unable to believe this creature had just barged in and said that.

"What the hell is that?!" the Willow-bot demanded with a look of horror on its face, as it saw the demon rip a civilian in two.

"I dunno, but keep back – I'll take care of this," Xander said to his friends, as the screaming started and someone yelled for the management to call the police.

"Are you nuts, Doofus?" Cordelia said scathingly, looking annoyed. Xander was briefly hurt by that, until he realized that his girlfriend was scared and concerned and using the annoyance as a mask to hide her true feelings. "You got lucky when you punched Spike way back when, remember?" she said to him.

Xander shrugged. "Okay, fine. You got a point, this is kinda public – and too many of our classmates are here." Still, if someone didn't stop the demon soon, he'd have to do something – it was killing people, after all!

"Someone call Buffy and Kendra," said the Oz-bot. And once outside they did so, the Scoobies managed to help most of the Bronze patrons escape – which *majorly* annoyed the demon, as no one was left to tell it where Buffy and Kendra were...

Elsewhere, the warlock finally finished fixing the Gem of Amara, sweat pouting down his forehead. The green gem stopped glowing, and then fell and landed on the counter. "Whew! That's done. And that's no ordinary gem, is it? I could *feel* the ancient dark magicks being restored, during the job!"

"True," the former Billy Fordham shrugged, grabbing the Gem. "I trust you'll keep your mouth shut about that?"

"No problem. And take my advice; put that thing in a safe place," the warlock suggested, getting a towel from underneath the counter to wipe his forehead.

"What have you in mind?" Count Orlok asked, still clutching the gem tightly.

"Hide it in your heart, it should be safe there," the warlock told him. "I mean vampire, right? Ain't no one that can get it there without killing you!"

The count thought to himself, { Yes, he's right. It's the one *sure* way of possessing the Gem so that it can't be taken away from me! }

"So be it." The vampire thanked the warlock for the suggestion, and decided to accept the offer to insert it into his heart.

To build customer good will, the warlock cut open the undead flesh with the precision of a surgeon, peeling it back until the rotted, unbeating heart was visible. He then jabbed the gem right into Count Orlok's heart!

"AGGHHHHHH!" Count Orlok screamed in pain, before the Gem of Amara healed him as the vampire's body glowed briefly with light. "That hurt!"

"Well, you know the old saying; no pain, no gain. Have a good evening, it's been a pleasure doing business with you!" the storeowner said with a small smirk.

Count Orlok was tempted to kill him, but eventually decided against it as he didn't want to draw attention to himself from the supernatural community. He just left, having already decided to maintain a low profile and not let the whole world know he had gotten the Gem back in working order. He was *smarter* than the ordinary small minds like Spike or Drusilla, after all!

Over at the Mayor's office, Richard Wilkins sat in his chair talking to some henchmen. { I'll have to move my plan up a notch, in order for my Ascension to get into gear for next year, } he thought evilly. { Oh well, never mind; what's an omelet without a few broken eggs? }

Elsewhere, Jareth chuckled over the Mayor's lame plans. "Good luck with all your convoluted plots, Richard." He had a spy among the Mayor's henchmen, and thus kept himself informed about what the politician was up to. He wanted to make sure that Richard Wilkins didn't get in the way of his own plans, after all.

Westworld facility, summer of 1999

Jareth was still busy making an android to lead his army of doom, when he started chuckling. Ethan noticed and said politely, "May I ask what's so amusing, Jareth?"

The demon stopped chuckling and shook his head. "Just thinking about the past – do you remember Richard Wilkins?"

"How could I forget? That cursed candy and all," Ethan shook his head in distaste. That was *not* one of his most cherished memories.

"Exactly. The Mayor was a fool, even before his Ascension and that Hundred Days debacle."

"How so, Jareth?"

"You weren't there any longer, by that point. But just before the Slayer's seventeenth birthday, one of the Mayor's demons decided to deal with the Slayers itself. I had to make it as weak as a little human child so that the Slayers could kill it…"

Abandoned mansion on Crawford Street, January 17th 1998

Count Orlok arrived at the mansion, not seeing any of the minions anywhere. { They must all be off feeding or something, } he thought to himself. { Well, never mind. Not like I care! }

He walked to what used to be the main ballroom, picking up a book off a table and sitting on an armchair by the fireplace. By candlelight, he started reading the book – much in the same way Angel would have done, in a different future timeline.

But that possible future had vanished long ago, thanks to Xander's choice of a different Halloween costume – and a demon which had kidnapped the real Willow and Oz, back when the Scooby Gang was just the name for a group of cartoon characters.

And it wasn't like Cordelia would have complained if she'd known about the fate she'd have otherwise had, either; after all, falling in love with Angel of all people would have resulted in her needless, horrible death after spending a year in a lousy coma, of all things!

Just like Xander falling in love with a former vengeance demon would have been a tragedy in the making, a love cursed from the start and resulting in nothing but pain and an empty eye socket...


	21. Chapter 21

Somewhere in Greece, January 17th 1998

Spike and Drusilla were sightseeing, as the minions that had replaced the ones they'd lost at the warehouse were out looking for one of the Judge's parts. Well, William the Bloody *was* a firm believer in delegating the work to those below him, and killing anyone who didn't perform up to standards! But neither Spike nor Dru were aware that somewhere Up There, the higher beings weren't happy...

Most of the Powers That Be weren't at all happy that some of their plans hadn't gone according to plan, like at all. Only two of the Powers That Be knew why things had gone slightly off the rails, because they had planned right this from the start; and both Jareth and Xander were part of their plan.

The two rogues were going to turn on the other Powers That Be soon…

Back at the Bronze, both Buffy and Kendra were in the parking lot as the demon burst through a wall like the Kool-Aid Man. The Chosen Two had arrived here on their way to the high school, after receiving a call on Buffy's cell phone and leaving the mausoleum battle zone.

"We'll take care of the demon, you guys watch the book!" Buffy said, as she gave Willow the book she and Kendra had retrieved earlier tonight.

"Will do, Buff. No vampire, no demon or things that bump in the night shall get the one book to rule them all!" Xander joked.

Both Willow and Cordelia sighed while Oz rolled his eyes. The cheerleader thought to herself, { How did I *ever* fall for such a geek? }

Unbeknownst to them all, Jareth used his powers to weaken the demon whilst watching from the sidelines. He didn't want anything to happen to Buffy – yet – and the demon didn't notice anything happing to his body. Even though he should have!

"Finally, you Slayers show up!" The demon grinned at the Chosen Two, more or less ignoring the rest of the Scoobies. It ran at the Slayers, but they got out of the way as Kendra jumped into the air and kicked the evil demon in the head.

The demon went flying into the air, before hitting the ground with a loud 'WHUMP!'.

"That's gotta hurt," Xander commented, wincing.

"Not complaining, but seriously – that's a pretty weak demon," the Oz-bot nodded.

{ How did that happen? } the demon thought to himself in surprise (and pain). { The Slayers should have been no match for me! No matter. } It got back on its feet and charged once more. The Slayers then punched the demon in the chest in perfect sync, which killed it in a few seconds. The demon fell over dead!

It all went to show that size *didn't* matter in this sort of fight...

"Whoever is covering up all these demon attacks, they're going to have a hard time covering this one up," Xander looked around with a heavy sigh. The Bronze was pretty badly damaged, with dead bodies inside and the last of the survivors fleeing into the night.

"Who says anyone's going to do that? It'll get blamed on wild animals, or Sunnydale's 'gang problem', they'll rebuild the club and everyone will come flocking back here afterwards," Cordelia shook her head. "Not like there's anywhere else to go in Sunnydale."

"She's not wrong," the Willow-bot shrugged. "I mean it's happened before, remember?"

Elsewhere, the minions found a Judge part at an old Sunnydale mausoleum. The vampires killed a couple of humans and left with the body part. Back at the Bronze, Jareth left with the demon body after setting up a distraction for the Scooby gang.

Said distraction was a bunch of vampires that came out of the darkness. They were after the book, even though they couldn't quite remember *why*...

"Get the book!" yelled the lead vampire.

"Great, now vampires. What's next, Bigfoot?" the Willow-bot demanded with a sigh.

"Unlikely. Wrong part of the country," the Oz-bot replied stoically.

"They're after the book! Scatter, now!" yelled Buffy. Immediately Xander, Oz, Cordelia and Willow headed towards the Oz-bot's van. But not quickly enough - a vampire was about to grab Cordelia!

"NO WAY!" Xander punched the vampire in the chest, using all this new strength – and the evil undead went flying into a parked car!

The vampires immediately had confused looks on their game faces. "Hey, he ain't human – what is this? No blood bag can hit that hard!" one of them said in puzzlement and a bit of fear.

"Forget Super Boy, go for the Slayers!" the lead vampire ordered his minions, mindlessly obeying Jareth's directives.

"Why does everyone want this book?" the Willow-bot asked, looking bewildered.

"Who knows, Wills?" Xander replied, as everyone (apart from Buffy and Kendra) got into the van. The other vampires left the Scooby gang and book alone (for the moment), and went for the Slayers. Buffy slayed a vampire, while Kendra kicked a vamp in the face, but they were outnumbered – so Xander got out of the van and started kicking some undead ass himself!

Cordy was in awe. { Okay, he's so definitely *not* a punching bag and a loser anymore! Oh, yeah, I bagged myself a guy who can actually defend me from all the monsters in this town! Just gotta keep him happy, I guess. Which, given how a good a kisser Xander actually is, shouldn't be too hard at all! }

Xander punched a vampire that was behind Buffy, as Kendra continued to battle the undead. The blonde Slayer briefly said, "Thanks, Xander."

"No problem, Buff."

Once they finished off the last of the minions, Willow's and Oz's robot eyes managed to catch sight of the enemy leader about to run for it. The lead vampire was about to escape, but Kendra threw a stake to dust him with extreme prejudice!

"Good throw, Kendra!" Xander said admiringly.

Cordelia rolled her eyes. { Typical. Can't Xander keep his mind focused on *me*, the girl he's making out with? Maybe I ought to dress up like a Slayer and put a stake to his throat, some role play or something... }

Meanwhile, Count Orlok had gotten bored reading his book and left the mansion; he'd fed on some human flesh bags on the way to Rack's lair. Hey, he was getting tired of drinking from the bottled stuff and hospital blood bags, most of the time! Anyway, he had consulted with Rack and learned about the existence of the book that Buffy and Kendra had found, earlier tonight. He had subsequently decided that he *had* to find it!

Count Orlok returned to the Crawford Street mansion, spotting Spike's minions carrying a crate with something inside it. They entered the side entrance of the mansion, before he ceased to pay the minions any attention. The Count didn't plan on telling Spike and Drusilla his plan for Sunnyhell, anyway. { Once I open the Hellmouth and gain control over its demon guardian, I'll rule the world! } He laughed once, darkly evil.

Over at City Hall, the Mayor wasn't too happy that the demon had failed to kill the Slayers, after misinterpreting his orders in the place… no, he wasn't happy at all. { You just can't find good help these days, can you? }

6305 Westminster Place, January 18th, 1998

At Willow's house, not long after the midnight hour, the Oz-bot and Willow-bot were talking to Jareth in the living room. If you wanted to get technical about it, they were doing so using Oz's robot eye, which was currently out of the robot's eye socket and in his hand. The real Willow's parents were out of town, like pretty much always, so they weren't afraid of any awkward interruptions.

"Does that conclude your status report?" the demon wanted to know, its voice coming out of the Oz-bot's eye like a microphone.

"One last thing..." the Willow-bot replied, before both of them filled in their creator about how the Scooby gang were paying attention to the vampire known as 'Count Orlok.'

6h ago"I want you two to keep an eye on this Count Orlok as well," Jareth ordered them.

"Yes, Jareth," they both replied at the same time.

"It wouldn't surprise me if he went after that book the Slayers found, actually. Seems like a popular item," the Oz-bot shrugged, looking thoughtful.

"Oz is right. That's just the way things seem to go in this town," the Willow-bot nodded.

"You may be right. Anyway, remain vigilant and keep up the good work, and return to your assigned task." Jareth signed off with a soft click.

The Oz-bot put his eye back into the empty eye socket. Then it turned to the Willow-bot and said, "Hmm. Now when he said 'assigned task', are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

The Willow-bot smirked. "If I tap into what the real Willow wants right now, sure."

The Oz-bot looked thoughtful. "We weren't designed for this, you know. These feelings, the...intimacy we've shared. The humans may be influencing us more than Jareth knows. Should we report it?"

"If you want to, go ahead. Although if we do that, most likely, Jareth will recall and reprogram us both. We wouldn't be what we are now... and even worse, we couldn't fulfil our purpose as Jareth's spies, without that connection to the real Willow and Oz," the Willow-bot replied.

In the end, the two robots decided not to say anything to their master. It wasn't like the emotions and human-like behavior were compromising their mission, after all – besides, who were they to say that Jareth didn't already know about all this? And if he *did* know, he obviously didn't care that his two android spies were already on the cusp of sleeping together...

Later that day at the school library, Giles looked over the book that Buffy and Kendra had given to him for examination. He didn't like what he'd read so far, some of the spells within it were pure evil...

"This book is far too dangerous to keep around, and risk it falling into the wrong hands. It must be destroyed," Giles said with a heavy sigh.

"Let's get rid of it, then," Buffy shrugged. She had no problem with that scenario, after all!

"Is there any magic protecting the book?" the Willow-bot asked.

"I'll do a detection spell to make sure there isn't," Giles replied. Even though he knew it had to be done, it still went against his grain to carry out such an act of wanton destruction – he honestly wasn't too happy about getting rid of such a rare book, despite how bad the contents were.

The bell rang, and the teenagers quickly dispersed, heading off to class. Well, apart from Kendra, as she wasn't a student here – the Jamaican Slayer stayed and helped the Watcher, while Buffy, Oz and Willow went off in one direction and Xander and Cordelia went off in another.

"People are staring at us," Xander murmured out of the corner of his mouth, although he didn't actually look at Cordelia. "How do you want to play this?"

Cordy never had a chance to reply, as Harmony and the Cordettes came charging up to their leader. "Cordelia!" more than one of them cried in horror.

"What?!" Queen C demanded imperiously.

"What are you doing hanging with this, this – geek?!" Aura demanded.

"Yeah! We saw you at the Bronze last night – with him! Like you two were together, or something!" Harmony screeched.

Cordelia hesitated, so Xander jumped in and said, "Yeah, Cordy hired me as her bodyguard recently -"

"What? That's ridiculous!" the Cordette named Joy interrupted.

"Actually, it's true," Cordy decided to go with the explanation her secret boyfriend had offered. "I got sick and tired of always looking over my shoulder for the weirdos and freaks that constantly seem out to get me – like that Marcie Ross girl, last year. So, I'm paying the Dweeb to keep an eye out for danger – and he can't do that if he isn't hanging around me, y'know?"

"I still don't buy it. What can Xander Harris of all people do to keep your safe?" Aura looked at the guy in contempt.

Xander looked at her, and then at Cordelia. Upon receiving the brunette's nod, he asked the Cordettes for something breakable, which they wouldn't mind being destroyed. With a smirk, Harmony reached into her school bag and tossed Xander a tennis ball. "There you go, loser, now what -"

POW! The tennis ball imploded, torn apart simply by Xander squeezing it with his supernatural strength.

"You were saying, Harm?" Cordelia raised her eyebrow archly. "I mean, can you *imagine* what would have happened if I'd asked Xander to place his hands on either side of your head, and squeeze?"

All of the popular girls immediately took a couple of steps back, looking pale as the blood rushed away from their faces. "How the-?" Harmony spluttered.

"Been working out, increasing my upper body strength," Xander ad-libbed. "Got sick and tired of all the jocks picking on me, like that nerd Andrew Wells. You girls remember him, right?"

The mere mention of the other day's school rampage caused the gang of popular cheerleaders to turn around and leave, repressing with all their might in order to maintain their sanity and the hopelessly lop-sided world-view. Cordelia watched them go and said, "Not bad, Doofus. Not bad at all."

"Yeah, well, you do realize that we're going to have to be in public together from now on, in order for that story to hold up. Is that going to be a problem?" Xander wanted to know.

"Depends. Like, are you asking me out on a date? A real one, and not just a make-out session like last night?" Cordelia demanded.

Xander contemplated that. "Will you get mad if I say yes?"

Cordelia took a deep breath and replied, "No."

Harris raised an eyebrow and said contemplatively, "Okay... Buffy's birthday is tomorrow. Would you do me the honor of attending her birthday party as my date?"

"I didn't even know she was planning to have a birthday party," the Chase girl shot back.

"She isn't, as far as I know - unless we arrange one for her," Xander pointed out.

"Then forget it – I want our first date to be *special*," Cordelia told him firmly. "I know you don't have much money, so you can't afford to take me to the expensive places in Sunnydale I like – but still. A girl does like to be romanced, you know? And by the way, meet me after a school – we need to go shopping for you and get you some decent clothes, if you're going to be spending time with me in public!"

"Hey! What's wrong with my clothes?" Xander demanded, as she grabbed him by the wrist and began pulling him away to class.

"You mean, apart from the fact that they look like they came from the Salvation Army? Those Hawaiian shirts have got to go, for starters," Cordelia proclaimed loudly. "On account of this isn't the Eighties anymore, and Tom Selleck isn't anywhere *near* the hunk he used to be..."

Somewhere in Greece, half an hour later

Spike and Drusilla were in a good mood, having finally gotten the Judge parts. Well, the minions had anyway. Even worse, they had just about all the Judge parts now. "We got it all, luv!" Spike grinned.

"I know! It'll be some wunnerful – oh Spoike, let's paint all the flowers red, with the blood of the Slayers!" Drusilla giggled madly.

They got ready to leave, before visiting a shaman in nearby Albania to transport them and their entourage to the Hellmouth. It was time to return to Sunnydale…


	22. Chapter 22

Crawford Street, Sunnydale January 18th 1998

Spike, Drusilla and their minions materialized outside their mansion lair with the last of the Judge parts, thanks to that Albanian shaman transporting them here from Europe. William the Bloody then snapped his fingers and the undead worker bees quickly carried everything into the abandoned old mansion, without a word.

Westworld facility, summer of 1999

At DELOS, Jareth was working with a demon's dead body and fusing the robot parts from 'Ted Buchanan' into the corpse. "Hmm. Where'd you get that body, Jareth?" Ethan asked, looking on in interest.

"Let's just call it a 'gift' from the Mayor of Sunnydale, Ethan, from around 18 months ago. I used my powers to weaken the demon back then. I didn't want the Slayers to die at that point, after all." Jareth laughed, darkly evil.

{ Plus, depending on what the Powers get up to... } Jareth had figured out by this point that two of The Powers That Be had plans for him and Xander. { Well, it never hurts to stack the deck in your favor, after all. }

"This army of yours, which you mentioned before - are they going to be zombies, Jareth?" Ethan frowned.

"No, Ethan. A zombie can't follow orders very well, and they're hopeless with people. No... think of them as replicants, but with longer life spans and with Slayer powers. Also, able to think and take orders."

"Really? Replicants?!" Ethan had a puzzled look.

"Blade Runner is, after all, one of my favorite movies, Ethan," the demon grinned.

Abandoned mansion on Crawford Street, Sunnydale January 18th 1998

Drusilla and Spike watched the minions carrying the Judge's parts in boxes. Then Spike lit a cigarette and put it in his mouth. "Home sweet bloody home, luv." He grinned, blowing out smoke from his mouth. "Marvelous, innit? Now the fun can *finally* start, once Big Blue is put back together again!"

"Spoike, I don't want the Judge to harm my Kitten," Drusilla told him in a pouty and worried tone of voice.

Spike rolled his eyes. { What's with her concern over that blasted whelp? } "Well, just my opinion – but that kitten needs to be de-clawed, Dru!" He chuckled wickedly. "Oy, what's the delay? How come Humpty Dumpty ain't put back together again?" Spike then growled at the minions.

"Sorry, sir. I, uh, apparently we're still missing one or two parts," one of the undead told him nervously.

"WHAT?!" Spike roared furiously.

"Shhh, Spoike-y, it's alright," Drusilla crooned comfortingly, nodding her head. "We'll find them, soon. Miss Edith says so!"

"Really, luv?" Spike glanced at her, before yelling at the assembled vampires, "WELL? You heard her! Go find them missing parts, before I bleeding well eviscerate the lot of you!" The undead scattered in fear as Spike grumbled under his breath, "Bloody incompetents, this is taking forever..."

Weatherly Park, Sunnydale January 19th 1998

The following night Kendra and Xander were out fighting vampires at the local park, while the others were at the school library working on how to destroy the cursed book that had recently been found. Both Slayer and the former Gunslinger grunted, and dusted, and kicked and punched...

At the Bronze, nothing was happening - because the place was shut down for the evening, and no one had arranged for Buffy's seventeenth birthday party to take place there. Thus, somewhere upstairs, the Powers were growing more and more irritated as things went more and more off-script. Well, all but two of them, anyway!

Meanwhile, both Angel and Buffy had come to pay Count Orlok a visit at the abandoned old mansion. They had no idea Spike and Drusilla were currently in the mansion's basement, asleep and not making any sound. Likewise, they didn't know Spike's minions were desperately looking for the last two pieces of the Judge! The Slayer and the ensouled vampire simply snuck into the mansion via one of the first floor windows, making their way through the empty lair.

{ Where is everyone? } Angel asked himself in concern, before the Count appeared before them. The other vampire obviously wasn't happy to see them, as Buffy whipped out a stake and moved into a combat stance.

"What are you two doing in my home?" Count Orlok demanded, staring at the unwelcome visitors.

"Well, y'know, doing the whole 'friendly neighbor' shtick - asking how you've been, welcoming you to the neighborhood, that sort of thing," Buffy quipped, getting ready to attack.

"Uh-huh. And the fact that you live on the other side of town, which is nowhere *near* this neighborhood, means what exactly?" the Bela Lugosi lookalike replied, causing Buffy to frown and glare at him.

"Where's Spike and Drusilla?" Angel asked.

"They're not home at the moment," Count Orlok told him with a sudden grin. "Well, I haven't seen them since they left for Greece and then arrived back, anyway. So, who knows what those two idiots are up to right now?"

"So, I take it you're not a fan?" Buffy asked, only semi-jokingly.

"That Spike, he keeps smoking in the library when I tell him not to. No respect for anyone but himself – and his sire," Count Orlok sighed. "But Drusilla is very lovely and cute, you have to admit."

Buffy snorted, while Angel said nothing. "Don't tell me you have a thing for the loony type?" she asked derisively.

"Hardly. SoCal valley girls are more my type." The vampire smirked at Buffy's grimace. "And just for the record? It's been a long time, Summers." The Count smiled in a friendly way.

"Wha-?" The Slayer was taken by surprise by this. { It sounds like we've met before, somewhere? No way, I'd have remembered someone with a face *that* ugly... }

"It's me, Summers. Billy Fordham." The Count grinned.

"WHAT? Ford? Is that really you?!" Buffy instantly had a look of shock and horror on her face, before she shook her head. "No way! You can't be -"

"Can't I? Yeah, I know I look... different, nowadays. Meaning, if you're wanting proof? I still have those old photos of you, the ones during that ninth grade beauty contest. I'm guessing your threat to kill me if I ever showed them to anybody is still valid?" the former Billy Fordham interrupted with a slight smirk.

"I – you – Ford? That's really you?" Buffy choked out in horror. "But, but you look like – what *happened* to you?"

"It's a long story, Summers. It started back when I was first diagnosed with brain cancer, actually..."

Back at the park, both Kendra and Xander finished off the last of the vampires. "We make a pretty good team, Xander," the Jamaican Slayer panted, trying to catch her breath. She didn't want to admit it, but after a good fight like that, she was feeling rather hungry - and something else...

"Thanks, Kendra, I totally agree. You're great! I've got to go meet up with Cordy, though, we made plans for a date tonight. See ya later!" He waved and took off towards his car.

{ What does he see in that girl? } Kendra wondered to herself, trying to repress unwelcome feelings of jealousy.

Back at the mansion, Count Orlok was still talking to Angel and Buffy. In the basement, Spike and Drusilla were still asleep. None of their minions had arrived back yet, or at least Angel couldn't feel their presence anywhere close by...

Jul 8{ I don't like this, } Angel thought to himself, as Count Orlok gestured for them to follow him. { What's this guy up to? Buffy knew him when he was alive, but that doesn't mean anything now. I just hope she can keep that in mind... }

"Ford, what are you up to?" Buffy demanded, as she and Angel followed her former fifth grade crush.

"Giving you two the nickel and dime tour, of course. Didn't you say you wanted to do the whole friendly neighbor thing, Summers?" the Count asked with a smirk. Buffy almost growled, as Angel got ready for an unexpected attack but the Count just kept walking. "Come on, we'll head for the ballroom first. And you might want to be careful – I booby-trapped the entire place before Spike and Drusilla showed up, it's why they haven't tried to dust me yet. Trust me, you won't like the unexpected surprises!"

Over at the library, Giles and Jenny finally removed the magic that was protecting the book from being destroyed. "Whew! That took longer than I expected," the technopagan exclaimed tiredly.

"So the book is safe to get rid of, now?" the Willow-bot asked.

"Yes, Willow. It won't blow up into a million pieces and kill us all," Jenny replied with a smile.

"Thinking that would be of the bad," the Oz-bot said in a typically laid-back, neutral tone of voice.

"Well, duh!" Cordelia exclaimed. "So, can I go now? Xander and I have a date scheduled for tonight, you know!"

"Yes, um, very well; f-far be it from me to interrupt your, errr, social schedule," Giles said, looking annoyed.

{ What, is Mister British Flag Boxer Shorts all annoyed that his plan for Buffy's surprise birthday party totally fell through? Well, who cares about that? } Cordy thought to herself snippily. "Okay, then, I'm outta here. I'll see you all tomorrow!"

The gang watched Cordelia leave, before heading out of the library and down into the school basement. While Xander was still driving to the school, Kendra was slaying one of Spike's vampires on her way back to the Watcher's home. And back at the Crawford Street mansion Count Orlok, Buffy and Angel were having a face-off in the ballroom.

"So, this whole 'Count Orlok' gig? Doesn't really mesh with the boy I had a crush on, when we were little kids. So can I still call you Ford, or what?" Buffy asked. She was still feeling kinda wigged after not having seen her old friend in a very long time, and then suddenly encountering him like *this*!

Count Orlok grinned. "If you want, Summers."

Angel *really* didn't like this, now. He loved Buffy, but he wasn't sure if he could trust her to be able to distinguish between her friend and the vampire standing before them. "So how long have you been a vampire?" he asked, getting right to the point.

"Since Halloween," the Count told him.

"Who did it? Who killed you?" Buffy wanted to know, suddenly looking angry. "Was it Spike? No, wait, that can't be right – what you said before...so who was it?"

"How I ended what I am today doesn't matter anymore at this point, Summers," Count Orlok shrugged. "What matters is where we go from here. I have the home ground advantage -"

"Whereas we outnumber you two to one," Angel completed for him. "Plus, over 240 years old, and I have a Slayer on my side."

"Yeah, I heard about that. It's quite the topic of gossip around town, actually. You should hear Spike going on about the mighty Angelus, de-fanged by a curse and love for – what did he call you again, Summers? Oh, right; Betty-Louise Plotnick, or something like that," the vampire shook his head.

Buffy looked extremely insulted, while again Angel said nothing. Back at the school, the Scooby Gang headed to the school furnace to burn the book. Giles opened the furnace door and threw the book inside with a heavy sigh, before slamming the door shut.

"Well, that was fun," Oz noted blandly.

"Yeah, well. With the book gone, at least we don't have to worry about it falling into the wrong hands anymore," Jenny replied, glad that the book was destroyed. "Come on, let's go."

Moments later the Scooby Gang exited the school basement, and so they failed to see Xander pull up in his uncle's car in the parking lot. Cordelia didn't, though. "Over here, Doofus!"

"Hey, sweetheart," Xander said with a smile, after getting out of the car and moving to hug her.

"WHOA!" Cordelia immediately put up her right hand to ward him off. "Your clothes – they're ruined! What the heck happened?"

"Them's the perils of vampire Slayage, honey. Supremely high risk of clothing damage, thanks to them wacky vamps wanting to kill you," Xander shrugged, smirking slightly.

Cordelia looked ready to throttle him. "Do you have any idea how much that outfit cost me to buy for you? And you trashed it, like almost immediately?!"

"Well, sorry if saving my own life was a higher priority than making sure the new duds survived intact," Xander told her, starting to frown.

"Damn it, Xander, don't you get it? I wanted for us to go to the movies together tonight! Wag The Dog is playing at the Sun Cinema, and Aura told me it's an okay comedy for couples to go see. I wanted people to see me hanging off your arm, and be *envious* of you! But that's not gonna happen now, with you looking like *this*!"

Xander shrugged. "Okay, so what's the plan? I go home, get changed, and meet you there?"

"Ugh. No, forget it," Cordelia huffed in annoyance. "I'm totally not in the mood now. I swear, this town – I'm really starting to hate it, y'know?"

"I know," Xander nodded, as he came closer and this time, Cordelia allowed him to hug her tight. "But look at the bright side, Cor; at least it's never boring around here!"

Neither of the two teens ever heard Jareth's howl of laughter, when he was informed of the conversation later on by his two robot spies...


	23. Chapter 23

DELOS lab, Westworld facility 1999

Trapped inside their human-sized tanks, the same way they'd been for the past two and a half years, the real Willow Rosenberg and Daniel 'Oz' Osbourne start to regain consciousness. But, as always, they couldn't move their bodies at all. It was a nightmare – and they'd have lost their sanity long ago, if not for the occasional feedback from their robotic counterparts on what was happening in Sunnydale.

It wasn't intentional – the robot spies weren't programmed for that. But their link to the human brains went both ways, at least sometimes, and that was the only reason why the two prisoners weren't a brain-dead mess.

Jareth sensed that Willow and Oz were now awake. He grinned, "So, you two have finally joined me, have you? Interesting..."

He got up from his chair. "I'm impressed! Tell you what - I'll adjust the brain tap so you can watch what's happening through your robot counterparts' eyes. But don't bother trying to warn that so-called Scooby gang of my plans. Even if you could talk right now, they can't hear your warnings." He chuckled darkly.

{ How long… } Not for the first time, Oz wondered how he and Willow are going to escape these tanks they were trapped in. And just like always, he refused to accept that he and the redhead were eventually going to die in them.

"I don't get why Xander even came up with that title of the 'Scooby gang', you know?" Jareth sighed. "Those kids don't have a talking dog, they don't unmask villains or even solve mysteries. Let alone look for clues! They don't even know that you, Oz, would have become a werewolf; or that Willow could have been a witch! No matter, things are still going as planned..."

Moving to another part of his office, Jareth adjusted the controls for the neural interface Oz and Willow shared with their android counterparts. And then, both Oz and Willow could see what their robot counterparts saw…

Crawford Street mansion, Sunnydale January 19th 1998

Some of Spike's minions *thought* they were sneaking in with the crates containing two of the Judge's parts. But they instantly got spotted by Buffy, Angel and Count Orlok.

"Oh, damn it! It's the Slayer and Angel, get them!" said the lead minion. The other minions mindlessly dropped the crates to the floor, and obeyed orders.

Count Orlok wasn't sure if he should join in the fight or not. Then he thought to himself, { Nah, I'll just watch instead, at least for now. } So he watched Angel and Buffy fight Spike's minions from the sidelines. { If only I had some popcorn, and a soda with blood in it, this would have been far more entertaining... }

Elsewhere, the robot versions of Oz and Willow took off in Oz's van, while Xander drove Cordelia home. Giles asked Jenny if she wanted to come over for some tea, and she said yes, even though it was a school day tomorrow.

"Er, yes," Giles nodded, hoping his offer hadn't seemed – indecorous. "It's just that I-I-I'm sure Kendra would appreciate having someone new around to talk to, you understand."

"I already said yes to come over to your home, Rupert. You don't need to try to make up excuses at this point," Jenny smirked.

Back at the mansion, Angel side-kicked a vampire in the chest, while Buffy hit one with a vase. He hit the floor and got staked by Buffy, with dust flying everywhere.

"We should get out of here," Angel told her, as he staked another vampire. "The odds are definitely against us!"

"Just a minute, honey..." Buffy called out, busy with her own opponents. "And better grab those crates, if we can – might be something valuable in 'em!"

Spike and Dru could now hear fighting going on from down in the basement. "Go see what's going on – and if we've got intruders, make sure they don't get the Judge's parts!" Spike barked out his order.

The minions left the basement, just as both Buffy and Angel finished off the other minions that had brought the crates with the last two missing body parts of the Judge. Angel picked up a crate and jumped through a boarded up window of the mansion, just as Buffy did the same; and then they were gone.

Suddenly, Drusilla began to giggle as she had a vision of the Scooby gang throwing a book (the one that Count Orlok had told her about a while ago) into a furnace at the high school. "Naughty, naughty..."

"What's that, luv? No, never mind!" Both Spike and her left the basement to see what was taking those idiots so long to report back.

Not far away, the minions stared at the broken, boarded-up window with a look of terror! "Spike won't be happy about this!" one of the undead gulped.

"You're bloody damn right, I'm not!" Spike yelled out, as he and Dru arrived on the scene.

"There's too much dust for it to be otherwise; they must have killed the delivery boys and taken the crates containing the Judge's body parts, sir," another minion voiced his opinion.

"Damn bloody wankers!" William the Bloddy grabbed a flower vase and tossed it down furiously. The flower vase shattered upon impact with the floor, scattering debris everywhere.

"Nice going, Spike. Damage my home, why don't you?" Count Orlok muttered.

Since hanging around a lethally angry boss was a recipe for getting dusted, and it was going to be morning soon anyway, the minions quickly scattered upstairs to their rooms. Spike stormed off down to the basement, while Dru told Orlok that the book he was after had been destroyed by the Slayer's friends.

"Damn! I should have gotten that book when I had the chance," the Count sighed. "Well, never mind – and thank you for telling me, Drusilla."

"You're welcome, ta-ta for now!" the insane vampiress curtsied and left.

Elsewhere, Xander and Cordelia arrived at her home on Parkview Crescent. Oddly enough, Harmony and Owen Thurman were there waiting in the driveway. "Why are those two here?" Xander asked Cordy.

"No idea," Cordy replied, as she and Xander got out of the car. "What are you two doing here?"

"So Harmony was right. You've been hanging out with loser Harris and his loser friends," Owen replied, ignoring the question.

Cordy gave Owen a hard glare. He said nothing back. Xander sighed and rolls his eyes, "Harmony? I don't suppose you've told him what I can do now, that thing with the tennis ball I showed you?"

"Yeah, sure I did. But y'know, seeing is believing and all that. Why are your clothes dusty, Xander?" Harmony asked; she could see the dust on his clothes, which were also ripped in a few places.

"Eh, I was cleaning out the attic. It's very dusty. Hasn't been cleared out in years." He swiped some dust off his clothes. "So, is there a reason why you two are here, spying on what Cordelia is doing?"

"Hey, that's none of your -" Owen started to say angrily. Then he started to gurgle, as Xander's hand wrapped his neck and briefly lifted him off the ground. "Eurgkkkk!"

Xander then let him go, and Harmony dragged Owen away before starting to berate him for not believing her. Then they started to talk in private whispers, with Owen throwing fearful looks in Xander's direction every so often...

"Well. Thanks for the ride, Xander," Cordy said, a small smirk appearing on her lips.

"No big," Xander grinned at his secret girlfriend.

"Maybe we could go see that movie this weekend, the one I wanted to see tonight," she whispered in his ear, so that Harmony and Owen wouldn't hear her.

"I'd like that. See you tomorrow, sweetheart." And with that, Xander took off for home.

Over at 1630 Revello Drive, Angel and Buffy arrived home with the two crates in question. They spotted how Joyce's car was in the driveway, but luckily she was asleep upstairs. Keeping as quiet as possible, they snuck into the house with the crates.

Thank God, my mom is asleep," Buffy heaved a sigh of relief, she couldn't hear any sounds of movement in the house.

"We should make this quick," Angel whispered. Both of them tip-toed downstairs to the basement.

"I get it." And just like that, they were wrapped up in each other's arms and their lips practically fused together!

In another world, they would have then consummated their love and unleashed a soulless monster – but here and now, Angel broke away once Buffy ran out of breath and said, "I should go."

"Right. Right," Buffy said in a strangled tone of voice. "Uh, am I a terrible person for wanting you to stay with me tonight? Like – in my bed?"

Angel's eyes went wide, as he understood what Buffy was saying. "No. But as I said, I should go. I mean, we don't want your mother to discover me here at this time of night, right?"

"Right. Ugh." Buffy made a face. "Okay, you better go, before I change my mind and drag you upstairs..."

As Angel carried the empty crates upstairs, climbed out through the window and then vanished into the night, elsewhere at Oz's place, the Oz-bot and Willow-bot were in the living room on the couch, spying on what was going on at 1630 Revello Drive through one of the bugs they'd planted there.

Luckily, the real Oz's parents were out of town, visiting Oz's Uncle Ken and Aunt Maureen. They made a habit of not being there in their home as often as possible, same as Ira and Willow Rosenberg...

Elsewhere, Jareth sent the Gunslinger to deal with the monks that had sealed an ancient god within a mask. Jareth had made a deal with the ancient god that he would break the seal for him. And in return, the ancient god would transfer Jareth's soul and powers to another body after his death.

The Gunslinger found the mask that contained the ancient god, before it heard the sound of approaching bodies. Naturally, the android opened fire on the monks. One by one they hit the floor, bleeding out, their bodies full of bullet holes...

What the Gunslinger didn't know was that the dead monks – members of the Order of Dagon, here in eastern Europe – had been destined to hide the Key from Glorificus a few years down the line, so that the Slayer would have a sister and be willing to protect the Key from the hellgod in question.

But no way that was going to happen now!

The Gunslinger put his revolver back into its holster, as the mask flew away from its hand.

The mask glowed reddish black! The mask then shattered as it hit the wall, freeing the ancient god….

Elsewhere, Xander arrived home. He parked the car in the driveway and got out, quickly entering the house and getting ready to hit the sheets. After brushing his teeth, he headed for bed; discarding his clothes, he fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

And if his dreams were triple-X rated and starring the one and only Cordelia Chase, so what? Red-blooded American teenage male, okay? Even if he wasn't exactly 'normal' anymore!

At Giles' condo, in the living room, Kendra, Giles and Jenny were drinking tea. Then Jenny stood up, saying it was time for her to go home. "I'll see you both tomorrow, Rupert, Kendra."

"Goodbye, Ms. Calendar." Kendra nodded with respect, and then went upstairs – leaving Giles to give Jenny a quick but intense kiss, before she exited out the door.

Back at the monastery of the Order of Dagon, the Gunslinger scanned the ancient god with its sensors, but the scans came up with nothing at all in its data banks.

"How strange," the Gunslinger commented. The ancient god was dressed in strange old robes that didn't look like they came from any known century, whatsoever. He has black, soulless eyes and a long brown beard.

"So, Jareth sends his henchman at last. And you've been busy, haven't you? Oh well, who cares about those dead monks? I'm free at last!" The ancient god laughed darkly, before he vanished with a flash of red lightning.

Reporting back to its master, the Gunslinger waited until a portal to DELOS appeared, before the killer robot vanished – leaving nothing but carnage and destruction in its wake.

Jareth had no idea that the ancient god was behind all of this and the seer, he'd been working for the ancient god….

1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale January 19th 1998

The day had come and gone, and it was night time again. And while the Scooby gang was busy dealing with vampires and demons, Spike paid Joyce a visit at her home.

Spike had figured out that it had most likely been the Slayer (and his accursed grandsire) that had stolen the crates last night. He'd guessed that they were at Buffy's house, after searching the more obvious places first. It was just Spike's good luck that he'd managed to get here before Giles could, and identify the body parts in question...

The British vampire knocked at the front door. Joyce opened the open the door (big mistake there!) and asked him, "May I help you?"

"Yeah, I hope so. Missus Summers, innit? I'm a friend of Buffy and Angel's," Spike lied to her.

"Really? Oh, that Angel person – he's far too old for my daughter," she said with a sigh.

"You have no idea, Missus Summers." Spike smiled. "May I come in?" He grinned evilly to himself.

"Well, why not. Although Buffy isn't home right now." She then invited Spike inside.

The soulless vampire wasted no time and knocked her out cold, the moment he crossed the threshold. Spike would have killed her, but he knew the Slayer would be pissed if he killed her mum. And he didn't want to deal with a ticked off Slayer - yet. He wanted the Judge active first!

So he carried Joyce to the couch, and, oddly enough, gently deposited her on it. Spike then swiftly searched the house for the Judge's parts. Finding nothing upstairs and on the first floor on the house, he went to the downstairs basement, breaking the door lock easily. Spike then spotted the trunk from last night...

"This is way too bloody easy, Slayer. No fun at all!" He fumed to himself. Without another word, Spike broke open the trunk and took out the wrapped-up Judge parts. He then ran out of the house and disappeared into the night.

Later on the Scooby gang, Angel and Kendra arrived at Buffy's house to get demon body parts from last night. But when they got there, the front door was wide open, which rang alarm bells in the minds of everyone present.

"Why's the front door open, Buffy?" the Willow-bot asked, looking confused.

"I'm not sure." Buffy replied, before she charged into the house. The Slayer then found her mom out cold, laying on the couch. The others arrived inside the house as well, Xander shutting the front door as soon as everyone had entered the domicile. Angel and Giles headed towards the basement, while Buffy checked on her mom.

Later, after Joyce woke up and heard a cover story about why everyone was here, Buffy wasn't too happy about how Spike had tricked her mother to let himself into her home. { Need to do a de-invite thing of some kind, or else that undead monster will be able to come in and kill us all in our sleep! }

A few moments later, both Giles and Angel came up from the basement without the Judge's parts, even though the Watcher had learned enough clues to determine what Angel and Buffy had brought into the house….

And a few minutes after that, Spike and Drusilla successfully rebuilt The Judge, putting the demon version of Humpty-Dumpty back together again. The Judge's eyes opened up, and Big Blue stumbled out amongst the undead.

"WHO BRINGS ME FORTH ONCE MORE?!" the Judge roared, glaring at his audience.

Luckily for him, Spike had never been a coward. He stepped forward defiantly and said, "Me and Dru, ponce. And have we got some choice targets for you to kill..."


	24. Chapter 24

Crawford Street mansion, Sunnydale January 20th 1998

Not long after the midnight hour, within Count Orlok's bedroom, the former Billy Fordham was reading 'Dracula' the original novel in bed. The next moment, though, he bolted up and dropped the book. He could sense something very powerful and deadly having manifested itself inside the mansion.

{ So, Spike finally got the Judge rebuilt. } Orlok somehow knew that this wouldn't end well for someone, most likely him. He still had too much humanity remaining within him, after all.

The next day inside the high school library, the Scooby Gang started to make plans on how to defeat the Judge. Everyone gathered around the main table, going over a lot of books and flinging ideas at one another.

"I don't suppose we could just throw a lot of hummus at this thing?" the Oz-bot asked thoughtfully, earning himself quite a few strange looks. "Hmm, I guess not."

The Willow-bot shrugged. "It's too bad we can't just electrocute the bad guy, like we did with that Moloch thing way back when!"

The gang continued to talk and brainstorm, but the only things they could come up with was using Andrew's freeze gun - since they had that weapon on hand - and explosives, which was Cordelia's idea. She'd come up with that because her father had an old saying – 'when in doubt, kill it with fire.'

(It should be noted that it was Xander who came up with the freeze gun idea. Mostly because he wanted to freeze the bad guy, and then simply shatter the body with a super-punch. Obviously, overcoming geek mode was still a work in progress for him.)

At that moment, Jenny Calendar showed up with drinks and donuts for everyone. "Thanks, Ms. C!" Xander said gleefully, before grabbing some and offering them to his girlfriend. "Cor?"

"As if! You think I manage to look this good, by pigging out on junk food?" Cordelia said disdainfully, before grabbing herself a Coke. "And if you're going to be my boyfriend from now on? You need to avoid the carbs as well, mister!"

"Whatever you say, honey," Xander replied with a smile, ignoring Buffy's grossed-out look and Kendra's jealous one. "Not like I wanna disappoint you, either now or in the future..."

DELOS facility, summer of 1999

At Jareth's headquarters, he and Ethan Rayne were playing a Japanese game called Go, killing time while some of the demon's evil plans were maturing.

"How is Feudal Japan World coming along, Jareth?" Ethan asked, as he made his move on the board.

"The robots are almost finished, and the background scenery is coming along quite well, as a matter of fact. We might do a test run for the theme park soon, actually." Jareth took a quick gulp from the rum bottle.

"Well, I hope it goes well for you. Asia is quite the expanding market, after all," Ethan said, suddenly frowning as Jareth made an unexpected countermove.

"That it is. And did you know that recently, a seer proclaimed that an orange cheeto would one day practically declare war on the countries there? The things you humans do," Jareth shook his head, as Ethan made a new move. "Oh, Ethan, really? I thought you could give me a better game than this – another five moves, and victory is mine!"

The British chaos mage saw it too, and threw up his hands in disgust. "It's all your fault, Jareth, you and your damned distracting chatter!"

Elsewhere, January 20th 1998

At the home of a seer that was working for a recently-released ancient god, a vampire with blue hair that matched his blue eyes awaited the arrival of his master. The vampire, who had been a seer in life and still retained his gift in death (kind of like Drusilla) took off his grey robe, revealing what he had on underneath - a green pinstriped suit with a green tie. He waited for the ancient god to arrive. And right on cue, red lightning appeared in the vampire's office.

"My lord Miraak! You have returned at last," the undead seer proclaimed with a deep bow.

The evil god grinned. "Indeed! That fool Jareth took his own sweet time to free me, Alduin..." Miraak sighed heavily. "But never mind. My plan for this world is still coming along quite well! Tell me, Alduin, does Jareth suspect anything at all?" Miraak then took a seat on a leather armchair.

"No, Lord Miraak. He has no idea that you planted the idea in his head, to give the Harris boy powers," Alduin replied with his head bowed.

"Good…" Miraak lit a cigar and started to smoke it. "Excellent..."

National Guard base outside Sunnydale, January 20th 1998

Later that night, the Scooby gang arrived at the nearby army base to get some explosives. Within Oz's van, Giles (with Jenny's help) cast a sleeping spell on the soldiers that were on guard duty outside the building.

"Giles, you and everyone else is on lookout duty - just in case something goes wrong. You two, come with me," Buffy told the group before she, Xander and Cordelia headed towards their objective.

"My parents will kill me, if they find out I'm helping to stealing bombs from the military!" Cordelia sighed in disgust, it was obvious she *hated* the idea of being the backup 'distraction' – in other words, dressed up a cheap prostitute's outfit.

Buffy just rolled her eyes, as she tried not to step on a sleeping soldier's hand. { Like my mom won't do the same to me? Seriously, Cordelia, focus! }

Xander was carrying a duffel bag over his shoulder, and sticking close to his girlfriend. "Don't worry, Cordy, at least not about these guys catching us. They're out like Sleeping Beauty!" he said with a short laugh. He easily ignored Cordelia's eye roll, as the trio made their way to the armory.

Meanwhile, Angel and Kendra were paying Spike, Dru and The Judge a visit… Angel and Kendra snuck in and through the old mansion, silently avoiding Spike's minions along the way so as not to alert the bad guys to their presence.

Back at the National Guard base Xander, Buffy and Cordy found the armory. They started searching for the explosives, with Buffy hissing at her two accomplices, "Don't even THINK about making out while we're here, got it?"

"You really think we're that dumb?" Cordelia shot back in annoyance.

"I wasn't talking to you, so much as I was Xander – teenage guys only have one thing on their minds, remember?" Buffy replied.

"On behalf of my gender, HEY!" Xander said in annoyance.

Back with Giles, Jenny, Willow and Oz in the van, no trouble (so far) had occurred. The Oz-bot looked to be asleep behind the wheel, even if he only had his eyes closed. The Willow-bot was staying in character by doing homework. And Giles and Jenny were on the lookout - technically. Both of them were rather distracted by each other, after all.

Then it started to rain outside. "Bloody marvellous," Giles grunted, as Jenny smirked and placed a hand on his arm.

"I think it's rather romantic – or it would be, under different circumstances," she whispered in his ear. Distracting the Watcher even further!

Meanwhile, within the armory, Buffy sighed in relief. "Finally, found them!" she said, before handing over blocks of C4 explosives to Xander and Cordelia.

Xander put down the duffel bag and unzipped it, before he and Cordy started packing away their treasure. "Let's blow us up a Judge, ladies!" he grinned.

Both Buffy and Cordelia groaned, as the duffel bag began to get filled up. And back at the mansion, after finally being discovered - Angel took on the Judge, while Kendra worked her way behind Drusilla.

For his part, Spike enjoyed the fight. "Bloody git, you'll finally get yours!" he shouted at his grandsire with an evil smile, before Angel hit Spike with powerful side kick that blasted him across the room. "Oy! Son of a -!"

19h agoThe (still-weak) Judge took a swing at Angel. He dodged the swing and side-kicked the Judge in the chest, much like he'd done with Spike. Immediately, Angel felt like his body was on fire as he howled, "AGGGGHHHHH!"

Kendra was concerned that her temporary ally was in pain, but she didn't let it affect her too much – the truth was, she wanted nothing more than stake this vampire she was stalking. But she knew the group needed the female vampire to act as bait. { I still don't get why the damned creature would save a human's life. But then, I don't need to... }

Kendra took out an ironwood cross that was roughly the size of her hand, something Giles had given her to use to knock out Drusilla with. While everyone was distracted with Angel's howls of pain, she hit Dru on the back of the head with the cross. The vampiress fell unconscious, with a slight burn mark on her hair.

{ Good, that should do it! } Kendra grabbed Dru before she hit the floor and placed the body across her shoulders. Running as fast as she could, Kendra left without Spike noticing - since he was still distracted by Angel. { I hope this works... }

Angel quit screaming in pain once he noticed Kendra gone with Drusilla, in truth he'd recovered earlier but he'd wanted to give the Jamaican Slayer the best chance to abduct their bait. { Now's my chance to distract them and get outta here, } he thought to himself. So Angel grabbed a huge table and then *threw* it at both Spike and the Judge!

The urge to duck was instinctive, and both Spike and the Judge almost lost their footing when they banged against one another. Taking advantage of this and ignoring Spike's cursing, Angel made his escape after leaving a letter for the platinum-haired vampire - which mentioned where Drusilla was going to be held at…

And yes, it had 'trap' written all over it, anyone could see that. But Angel knew Spike, and that was how he knew that William the Bloody would still come anyway to rescue his beloved Dru...

A short while later, at an old run-down house elsewhere in Sunnydale - Count Orlok found some runaways that had been living there for a while. "It's been a long time since I had some blood fresh from the source!" the Bela Lugosi lookalike grinned, flashing his pointy fangs at them!

The kids screamed in fear, even if one of the runaways tried to get past him, but the runaway was instantly grabbed by the neck. Orlok bit down on the young man's throat, draining him dry and then tossing the body away like a rag doll to the side of the living room. The other runaways backed away in fear and horror, as quickly as they could from the soulless vampire.

As if counterpoint how hard the rain was hitting the roof outside, the front door got kicked open - by a monster hunter calling himself Johnny Van Helsing.

Well, this was Sunnydale – and so you had to love the irony!

Back at the National Guard base, Xander, Buffy and Cordelia ran through the rain as they headed for Oz's van – all three of them getting soaked. Once they reached the van, Oz's eyes opened and the side door clanged open, and the trio climbed in with the bag of explosives.

"Did everything go okay?" the Willow-bot asked in concern, as she grabbed the duffel bag from Xander.

"Yeah, no problems – apart from my hair getting ruined!" Cordelia growled.

Xander took off his jacket, turned it inside out and handed it over to his girlfriend in order for Cordelia to use it as a towel. "We good, sweetheart?"

"Yeah," Cordelia smiled and thanked her boyfriend, before putting the makeshift towel to good use.

"Oz. Get us outta here!" Buffy ordered, ignoring her own state of dripping wetness.

"One moment..." Giles said, before he and Jenny undid the sleeping spell. Oz then started the van and took off, just before the sleeping soldiers started to wake up.

Jenny started to look through the duffel bag, examining the stolen C4. "Well done, all of you..."

"Thanks!" Cordelia accepted her teacher's praise with a megawatt smile, casually leaning into her boyfriend's embrace. { Feels kinda nice, actually, to have your efforts acknowledged for once – not to mention the sacrifices I make for the cause... }

Back at the Crawford Street mansion, Spike spotted the note that Angel had left on the floor. He read it, and then angrily tore the note to pieces. "Damn them bloody gits!" Spike grabbed and threw the table that Angel had thrown at him and the Judge. The table shattered after hitting a wall, leaving a huge crack in the side of the house!

Over at the old, run-down house, Johnny Van Helsing and Count Orlok faced off while the runaways quickly vanished through the rear exit of the building. Neither opponent took much notice as the vampire's intended dinner vanished, though of course Orlok had to say something.

"I'll hunt them down after I kill you, monster hunter!" Count Orlok grinned evilly at his adversary.

The former Billy Fordham didn't think much of the newcomer's dress sense - Johnny Van Helsing was dressed all in black, after all. Looking to be in his early 20s, he was wearing a leather duster as a coat, a hat that looked like Indiana Jones', combat boots, a long sleeved shirt, plus a button-up vest and jeans. Van Helsing also had a belt around his waist containing silver bullets for werewolves. Two belts across his chest were shaped like an x, with wooden stakes.

"Shut up, vampire!" Johnny growled at him.

While Count Orlok started to fight the monster hunter, elsewhere the Scooby gang set up the trap for Spike and the Judge, using Drusilla as the bait. It was a quick and dirty set-up, but then they didn't have time for subtlety...

Drusilla was chained up with the cross laying on top of her chest, burning her - she was still unconscious, though, for some reason. As the others kept an eye on her, Xander and Oz buried the 'borrowed' explosives into the ground.

Moments later, everything was set in place. All they had to do was wait for Spike and the Judge to arrive at Sunnydale's miniature golf course...luckily, the place was completely empty at this time of night. Even the lone security guard wasn't dumb enough to stick around, after hearing all the strange noises and what-not!

As they waited, Xander kinda felt bad for Drusilla - after all, she did save his life from that arrow. Of course, he didn't say anything about it; she was still a soulless monster, who had murdered who-knew-how-many innocent people!

When Spike showed up, he wasn't too happy seeing Dru being chained up with a cross on her! "You lot will all pay for this, effing asshoes!" he roared. Ignoring everything else, Spike found some dusty gloves so that he could safely remove the cross. He left the Judge and the minions to go after the Slayers and their friends; he had his sire to save first!

While Spike attempted to rescue Dru, Jenny cast some stunning spells at the vampires while Willow, Oz and Giles dusted the stunned vamps with extreme prejudice. "Okay, then -" the Oz-bot started to say.

But at that moment, the Judge stepped on some of the buried explosives! The blast wave from the C4 sent everyone up into the air - the vampires got dusted, while the Judge took some damage, but not too much.

"You humans will die for this!" The Judge sent Buffy and Kendra to the ground with his fists, cursing the fact that his strength still hadn't returned enough to burn everyone here into ashes. "You – no!" he yelled, as Giles cast a spell to try to slow the Judge down.

At that moment, Spike removed the cross from Drusilla's chest and snapped the chains restraining her into pieces. Spike glared at Angel and roared, "Another time, mate, but trust me - you *will* pay for this!" Then much to everyone's astonishment, he simply took off with Drusilla – abandoning the Judge and his minions, both.

19h agoIt started to rain again at the miniature golf course, as Jenny helped Giles to attack the enemy. Cordelia fired off a crossbow at the last of the vamps, before it was dusted by Xander. "That's it -"

The Judge, ignoring everything else, walked towards the fallen Slayers – and he said, "I am ready now, you will burn..."

Xander yelled at the Judge, "Hey, Smurf Hulk!" before he threw at a huge rock at the creature's head.

"Who dares-?" the apocalypse demon started to say before the rock hit him hard in the face, sending him flying through the air. By luck and design, the Judge landed directly on the rest of the C4 explosives, and so there was a huge explosion of flame and sound -

The Judge was totally damaged, since (unknown to the others) Giles and Jenny had cast some powerful dark magic on these particular bricks of C4. "This cannot be," the Judge muttered to himself, after he crash-landed onto the ground. "No weapon forged by man can kill me..."

{ That was then and this is now, you ignorant fool, } Jareth thought to himself with an evil smile – he had been watching the whole time from the nearby administration building. { Someone ought to simply put you out of your misery, already! }

The Judge hauled his totally damaged self to his feet, wobbling all the while. "I will end you all, it is my destiny to -"

Having had enough, Xander tackled the Judge to the ground - which was now a big hole in the earth. Ignoring the pain, he took a swing at the Judge's head – and it was torn off, flying away through the air from the rest of the apocalypse demon's body.

"AGGGGHHHHH!" Xander screamed in pain, as the Judge's remains dropped to the ground. Cordelia instantly went to him, demanding to know what was wrong, the concern and panic clear to everyone present.

Fortunately, that was end of the Judge's threat potential… Angel helped the Slayers get to their feet, as Giles ordered everyone apart from Xander and Cordelia to pick up the pieces and keep them separate. Not far away, Jareth disappeared from within the shadows, laughing to himself.

"We have to pick up the pieces? This sucks," Buffy complained, her body still aching from the Judge's attack.

"Just dis once, I hafta agree," Kendra replied, wriggling and stretching her body to try to recover.

"Do I need to take you to the hospital?" Cordelia demanded of her boyfriend, ignoring the Chosen Two completely.

"Nah, honey, I should be fine," Xander shook his head, as he finally managed to get to his feet. "The pain is already starting to disappear."

"Come on, let's get outta here," Jenny said, once all the pieces of the Judge had been collected into separate garbage bags.

"We won't all fit in the van," Oz warned, "especially with extra Judge cargo."

"I can make my own way home. Buffy, see you tomorrow?" Angel asked. The blonde Slayer nodded and kissed him passionately, before the ensouled vampire vanished into the shadows.

"So, who else isn't coming?" the Willow-bot asked, looking around the group.

"Count me out, my house isn't too far away – I can walk from here," Cordelia spoke up.

"Me too, I'm gonna escort her home," Xander said, his arm already wrapped around Cordelia's waist.

"Den dat should be enough for all de rest of us to fit inside de van," Kendra said, totally avoiding looking at Sunnydale High's resident odd couple.

"Right, then let's be off – we, um, we need to make arrangements to, to send these pieces of the Judge out of Sunnydale – a-a-and the sooner the better," Giles proclaimed, and a few moments later, the van and everyone apart from Xander and Cordelia had vanished from the miniature golf course.

"Cordy -" Xander started to say, when a pair of Cordelia-shaped lips crashed onto his and cut off the rest of what he was about to say, her arms wrapping themselves around his neck as the two crazy kids frantically made out at the remains of what had been a popular town attraction.

"Take me home," the brunette told him in no uncertain terms, after the Chase girl finally had to come up for air - oxygen eventually became an issue for everyone, after all. { And if you think you're spending the night anywhere except my bedroom, Xander, you're an even bigger idiot than I thought you were! }

Naturally, this made two of the Powers That Be more than a little angry, later that night...


End file.
